Animorphs: The Confrontation
by aizxana
Summary: Second of Four stories. Ferdie and the other morph capable fugitives make their way across the mountains of Wales in the next step of their quest to find Jake and the other Animorphs. But, of course, not all goes to plan.
1. Introduction: A Good Place To Start

**Animorphs: The Confrontation**

_This is the second of four stories following Samantha Goddard and the other morph-capable fugitives on their journey to find the Animorphs. It takes place fairly early on in the Animorphs series – somewhere around books 16-19. It's best if you have read number 1 – The Fugitives – first, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if you haven't. Enjoy, and if you like it, please review! In fact, review whether you liked it or not! I love reviews!_

Introduction: A Good place To Start

Hey, there. Hi. My name's Ferdie. You can call me Flawless. Want to know why my nickname's Flawless? I'll tell you when you're older. Hehe. No, just kidding. It's because of my full name – Ferdinand Lawless. Or, Ferdinand Horatio William Lawless if you want the whole charade. So, if you haven't worked it out yet, my first initial and my last name makes F. Lawless. Which spells Flawless. Plus, just so you know, I am also a pretty flawless guy. Perfect in every way. Most girls would say so, anyway. And their mothers. I am what the geriatrics might call an eligible bachelor. What the girls might call a very good catch. In a nutshell, I'm a gorgeous, rich, Eton-educated sixteen-year old polo-playing young blood from England with an enormous lust for life and a rather marvellous sense of humour to go with it. Just one step away from Prince Harry.

I'd better stop now, before my modesty runs out in front of me and starts whacking me over the head with a polo stick. I don't want to spoil all the fun just yet. I just thought you'd like to know my name. Nothing wrong with that, is there?

Actually, I'm thinking, perhaps there is. I should probably tell you about the situation before I get too far, now that I come to think of it. Let's get serious for a second, if I can manage it. There are some people – if you could call them people – out there, who managed to get hold of my name a couple of days ago. Now, they know everything there is to know about me. They know my name, age, date of birth, address – sorry – _addresses_, my hair colour, my favourite food, my clothes size, the date of my next polo match, the names and dates of births of forty-two generations of Lawless forefathers – pretty much anything you can get on a piece of paper. And, using that information, they're trying to kill me.

"What's that I hear?" you say. "Sirens. The rubber room brigade are on their way."

I think I'd better do a Samantha here and state that I'm not mad. Nor is this a product of my rather over-active imagination. This is all true. Honestly. And it gets better. The chaps who are trying to kill me are a bunch of evil, mind controlling aliens, (from a galaxy with a better name than ours) called Yeerks. Yeerks. Heard that term before? If not, you'd better get familiar with it. You'll be hearing a lot of them from here on. The Yeerks are a race of parasites – slugs, basically, that slip into your ear canal, take over your brain, and control your every move. You can't run. You can't cry. You can't do anything unless the Yeerk in your head does it for you. You're a slave – trapped inside your head. And you can do nothing but sit and watch as the Yeerk tricks your families and friends into becoming Controllers themselves. Controllers. Another term. That's what we call someone who's host to a Yeerk.

God, this is depressing stuff. I almost wish I hadn't mentioned any of it. Perhaps I should get Samantha to tell you all this. She's probably better at this than I am. But I suppose, now that I've started, I'd better carry on with it. There's a reasonably important fact that I haven't mentioned yet. And that is…we can turn into animals.

No, honestly. Don't laugh. And don't call 999. This is, actually, all true. My brother Philip and I, and three strangers, Sam, Asha and Maggie, were abducted by an alien race called the Skrit-Na, just a couple of days ago. Actually, Maggie was abducted separately, and we didn't get to meet her until about five minutes ago, but I'll come to that in a second. The Skrit-Na are a race that look remarkably similar to those cute greys you see in the X Files and Roswell. They're a bit meaner, thought, although no where near as mean as the Yeerks. They've got this obsession with collecting things. Preferably alien, and preferably alive. Which is why the five of us were beamed up by Scotty into a hellish alien spaceship. They also like collecting anything of value, and had managed to get hold of a rather nifty bit of technology called the Escafil device. This device -nothing much more than a small blue cube- is the cause of all our problems now. It is owned by – and you should have started writing all these names down, by now – a powerful and advanced race called the Andalites. These mutant blue horses were rather peeved that the Skrit-Na had managed to nick one of their most prized possessions, and sent out a ship manned by an Andalite named Eramas to retrieve it. Unfortunately, the Yeerks had also learnt that the Skrit-Na held this device. And they'd do anything to get their hands – or, at least, their host's hands – on it. They've even got their own war-general, Visser Five, and his team, on the case - specially selected to retrieve this technology. Because this small, rather beautiful, rather innocent looking blue box has that power to give an individual the ability to morph - change, if you like – into any animal they touch. Not a bad ability, when you think about it. Long story cut short: Eramas fights Yeerks. Gets blue box. Gives me, Philip, Sam and Asha power to morph. We morph Andalites. Escape back to earth. On run. Yup, we're on the run now, from Visser five _et al_, whose new mission is to catch us. Catch us, with the intention of infesting us. I'm sure Visser Five would love a decent, morph capable body, like his superior, Visser Three has. Failing that, they'd just kill us.

I know they'd kill us, because we've just become within two inches of knocking on Death's door. And I'd better stop making ridiculous jokes now, because now, things really do get serious. We've just had our first proper run in with Visser Five and his gang. Samantha, our leader, had got us all into our battle morphs (mine's a cool little lynx) to fight our way out of trouble. We'd also managed to rescue the fifth abductee, Maggie, whilst we were at it. We'd fought. We'd succeeded. We'd escaped. Or, at least, four of us had escaped. Asha, in a last, desperate attempt to save Samantha's life, had sacrificed her own to ensure we escaped. And, as the rest of us morphs birds and beetles and flew to safety, Asha gave her life and fell to her death.

And, if we ever make it, we'd got a mission to complete, as well as keeping ourselves hidden from the Yeerks. According to Eramas, the renegade Andalite who illegally gave us all the power to morph, there are five other humans on this planet with the power to morph. Five kids, actually, even younger than we are. You might know them. One of them's called Jake something-or-other. I can't remember the others' names off hand, but I'm sure Sam knows. God, five kids. That's it. That's the Resistance, although I'm sure they've thought up a better name for themselves. Five kids living double lives somewhere on the west coast of America. That's all Earth gets, until us four get our lives in gear. They're the ones that are saving this planet from the Yeerks. And it's our job to find them – without getting captured first, and without the added bonus of leading Vissers Five and Three right to their doorsteps.


	2. Chapter 1: Afterwards

Chapter 1

With my superb falcon hearing, I could hear everything. I could hear the wind whistling through me feathers. The gentle hum of the cars on the dual-carriage way below. Unfortunately for me, I could also hear a lot more than that.

--Ash!—screamed Samantha, somewhere behind me. –Asha!—

I didn't need to turn around to know what had happened. Sam's tone of voice, and Asha's triumphant yell had told me everything. Sam had escaped. Asha had not.

I'm normally the type of guy who likes to see the best of a bad situation. I'm well known in, and let me be blunt here, the _upper classes_ of society, as the boy with the impressible sense of fun. Anything that is crazy, dangerous, anything that ensures a fine is to be had by all, I generally greet with over-eager enthusiasm. Polo, parties and pranks is what I live for – and in that order. Unfortunately, now was not the time nor place for a laugh.

I followed Philip as he descended a few hundred feet towards a suitable demorphing spot, and landed, somewhat clumsily despite letting my hobby falcon's mind take over for the duration, on the roof of a department store. Philip landed just a few feet away, his buzzard body landing perfectly, I may add, and we started demorphing at top speed. The two of us were nervously looking around us for signed of having been followed by Controllers – the fight had seemed like it was still going on around us, when, in fact, it was probably at least half an hour ago that we'd heard Asha's searing last words. Samantha had ordered us to carry on flying until we were totally out of sight of the Controllers, then to demorph as soon as possible where she would find us with the new fugitive, Maggie. Maggie, the fifth abductee, who'd been forced in the heat of the moment to morph a beetle, having never morphed before. Maggie, who was to replace Asha as the forth fugitive…

I forced my thoughts away from the battle and the thought that Asha could be dead, and concentrated hard on my human form. Demorphing is easier than morphing as it's easier to picture your own self than the body of an animal – especially when you've spent as much time admiring yourself in the mirror as I, on many an occasion, have been known to do. I have to say, morphing is not the most pleasurable experience. It doesn't hurt – those clever little Andalites must have thought of some way to stop the whole pain side of it from happening – but it does shoot off the scale of the creepiness factor. The first thing to change was my beak. It turned soft and runny, like a melting chocolate bar, and formed itself into my own familiar nose and mouth. Next went the feathers. They ran together like hot wax, gradually turning my own pinkish tan, lightly dusted with freckles here and there. I looked over at Philip, my brilliant raptor vision rapidly becoming blurred as my weak human eyes reformed in their sockets. He was demorphing faster than I was – the boy seemed to have some kind of talent for top-speed-morphing – although it looked no prettier. He was almost fully human except for two short hawk legs sticking out of his lower half. Each foot still possessed the sharp, tearing claw of the buzzard.

"Talboat chllegs!" I said, my mouth still not yet fully human.

"What?" Philip looked at me, his human eyes almost as fierce as they had been when he was a hawk. "I didn't understand a word of that."

"I said, talk about chicken legs!" I repeated, my mouth now fully human. I motioned towards his legs with my still shifting arms. Philip just looked confused. Unfortunately, it seemed as if my passing joke had come too late – Philip's legs were now totally human, clad in navy cycling shorts and long, knee length socks he'd worn in the army. I sighed.

"Where the heck's Samantha?" I asked Philip. "I thought she was right behind us."

"She's probably on her way, looking for us," he said, scanning the sky. "Our eyes are a lot weaker than they were as birds, so what we were able to see clearly a few minutes ago, might be invisible to us now we're human."

Sure enough, a couple of minutes later, a lanner falcon landed beside us. It dropped something small and black onto the ground beside us, and began to grow.

--Don't just sit there, guys!-- yelled Samantha. --Help Maggie demorph!--


	3. Chapter 2: The CAI

Chapter 2

The little black speck – Maggie in beetle morph - was not moving.

--Maggie!-- Sam screamed earnestly. –You need to get in control of the beetle's mind! You need to picture you human form!--

"God, Sam, does she not know what's going on?" I asked, shocked. None of us had morphed a bug yet. We'd only done reasonably intelligent animals, such as mammals and birds. I had no idea what the instincts of a tiny, mindless beetle would be like to control.

--I don't know!-- Sam said. –She's been in morph for over half an hour, so I guessed she would have gained control by now, but it's her first morph ever and I haven't heard a word from her. Come on, Maggie – answer me!--

"It's a miracle you managed to hang onto her in your talons for this long," Philip said, shifting over to make room for Samantha's growing body.

--I know,-- said Sam, in between calls of 'Maggie, demorph!'. –I kept looking down, like, very five second to make sure I still had her.--

Samantha was almost human again, the last of the brown feathers disappearing rapidly into her skin. She knelt down on the ground, shivering in her blue morphing leotard, her breaths coming in rapid gasps as she tried to get Maggie to respond.

"Come on, Maggie!" she moaned. "Please answer me! Concentrate on your human form! You're a beetle right now – but you need to become human again!"

Philip joined in.

"Human, Maggie!" he said. "Picture yourself as human!"

Sam shook her head. "We should have stayed as birds," she said. "I don't know if beetles have ears like we do. Can they can even hear?" She swallowed and looked up. "Philip – morph back to hawk and try thought-speaking to her…"

But, just as Philip began to change, the beetle began to grow.

"Sam - look!" I exclaimed. "Maggie! You're doing it! That's it! Be human!"

Sam breathed out a sigh of relief. The beetle was growing, slowly – ever so slowly – but it was definitely growing. I realised I had been holding my breath and let out a sign myself. The growing beetle was changing in more obvious ways now. The shiny back shell was softening and becoming pink and soft. Long red hair was sprouting front its head. Suddenly, the beetle's six legs were sucked into its body like spaghetti – and replaced by four fully human limbs.

--Arrrghhhh!--

Maggie! She had finally got her voice – or at least, her thought-speak voice – back!

Sam quickly moved in to try and calm her.

"Come on Maggie, you're doing really well! You're almost human! Shut your eyes, like you did before!"

Pink eyelids closed over the still black beetle eyes. I tried not to throw up as I watched the last of the changes happen to this child-sized half human, half insect monster before me. I really was not looking forward to doing my wasp morph any time soon.

At last, Maggie's face emerged from the beetle's head. The last traces of any insect dissolved. A short, plump, red haired girl crouched on the floor, trembling. She opened her huge brown eyes and stared at Sam.

"What the hell just happened to me?" she gasped.

"Congratulations," I said, taking her hand and shaking it. "You're now a fully-fledged member of the Corporation for Applied Insanity."


	4. Chapter 3: Cityscape

Chapter 3

The sun was beginning to set, our bodies casting long shadows over the roof of the department store. I stood up and gazed at the view of the city around me. We were in Leeds, one of Yorkshire's major cities, having flown for about half an hour from the scene of the battle. I don't think Sam was intending for us to fly here, we just kind of ended up here. I was hungry. I could smell the greasy pongs of a fish and chips shop wafting up from the street. It reminded me how hungry I was. Normally I wouldn't touch fast food, I would much prefer a nice dinner at the latest London hotspot, or tasty lobster cooked for me by a tasty girl, but tonight, after what we'd been through, I'd eat anything.

"They are called Yeerks," Sam was saying to Maggie. "And those big, dinosaur like creatures that you said captured you, they're called Hork-Bajir."

I leant back against the cold metal of a ventilation shaft, only half listening to the conversation. Samantha was filling Maggie in on the situation with the Yeerks and the morph-capable resistance in America we were supposed to be searching for. I tried to block out her voice. It only made me dwell on how life was never going to get back to normal. I don't like to dwell on things. That's my brother Philip's job. Whilst he'll be sitting analysing every possible outcome, then evaluating the whole thing once it's finished, I'll just jump right in, no questions asked. Whether it's polo match, extreme sports, or asking a girl out to dinner, I'm one of the do-now-think-later chaps. Actually, most of the time I don't even bother to complete the 'think later' part. If whatever I did went well, then, fantastic, I'll do it again. If it went badly, I'll frown and think 'well, stuff that.' But something in Sam's voice and the things I'd seen over the last day or so told me that I was going to have to rethink this blasé attitude of mine if we were going to survive this whole thing.

"Maggie needs some more morphs," said Sam, snapping me out of my trance. "So far, all she's got is a beetle, and that's not going to do very much for us." She looked over at Philip. "Philip, you know this city better than I do. Is there another zoo or something where Maggie can acquire some decent morphs?"

Philip thought for a moment. Sam had made a subtle but obvious point that we would not be going back to Archington House were we'd acquire most of our battle and travelling morphs – we had started our journey now, and we were not going to take any risks or waste any more time by doubling back on ourselves.

Suddenly, Philip snapped his fingers. "Yes," he said. "There is a zoo near here. It's not a very major one, and it's not got as much as my uncle's place, but it's only a few minute's flight from here as hawk and it should have a few useful creatures."

Sam nodded. "Ok. Maggie, I need you to remorph to beetle – don't worry," she said, seeing the horrified look on Maggie's face, "it won't be for long. And it should be easier second time round. Philip, you morph to hawk and let Maggie hitch a ride among your feathers. Fly to this zoo of yours. Get a couple of good morphs, but don't spend too long there. An hour at most. Get Maggie a raptor, and a goose, and see if you can try and get something that can be used for lots of different occasions – fighting, running, whatever – rather than a separate morph for each. We don't have time for her to acquire loads of different animals like we did. While you're doing that, me and Ferdie'll work out where to go from here."

"On it," replied Philip, already on his way to buzzard. Maggie, with a reluctant look on her face, began to morph back to beetle. She managed to get control of the beetle's mind pretty quickly this time, and crawled into the feathers on Philip's neck. A moment later, they were in the sky and out of sight.

"How do we know she's not a Controller already?" Sam asked me.

"What?" I asked, lost in my own thoughts.

"I said, how do we know that Maggie isn't a Controller already and she's been placed with us to follow us and lead us to Visser Five?"

"Sam, I really don't think…" I trailed off. Maybe Sam had a point. The Andalite had told us that anyone could be a Controller – it was impossible to tell. "But she was locked in that Securitas van," I pointed out. "They wouldn't keep her prisoner if she was already infested, would they? Maybe they were on their way to transporting her to one of these Yeerk pools. Maybe they were planning to take her to Visser Five, make her his host? Only we showed up and they decided to change their priorities."

"I suppose you're right," said Sam, staring into the distance. "It's just me being all paranoid."

I could tell she was trying to make conversation to take her mind off Asha. She was huddling her knees to her chest, trying to block out the late afternoon chills. I peeled off my tee-shirt and placed it round her shoulders. She jumped, but then turned round and smirked at me.

"Thanks," she said, raising an eyebrow.

"Hey, I might be a slobby teenage youth, but I also know how to be a gentleman," I laughed, putting on my best public school accent. "I, err, wouldn't wipe your face on it though, might be a little bit sweaty."

I laughed and grinned at her. She grinned back, but quickly averted her eyes, blushing. Score! The girl was falling for me already!

"I guess," she said, "the only way to be sure is to secretly watch her for three days to make sure she doesn't go near a Yeerk pool. Then, we'll know she's safe."

"How do we know if she goes to a Yeerk pool?" I asked. "We don't even know what one looks like."

"The four, sorry, three of us will just have to make sure she doesn't go off anywhere on her own for any length of time. Make sure she goes where she says she's going, and all that. We barely know her – even less than we do each other – but we can try."

I nodded, Sam's words echoing in my mind. Even though we'd known each other only a couple of days, I already felt like I'd known her for years.


	5. Chapter 4: White Tails and Red Leos

Chapter 4

Whilst Philip and Maggie flew off to find some decent morphs, Samantha and I were left with the not-so-enviable task of 'route planning'.

"Norwich!" shrieked Sam. "Norwich is in completely the opposite direction to where we want to be going!"

"Well, excuse me, but I'm not the one who thought Glasgow was twenty minutes flight from here!"

Unfortunately, since neither of us had a map, (or a particularly sound geography of Britain) things weren't going very smoothly.

"Maybe we should wait til Philip gets back. He did route planning with the army at Sandhurst – cross country too – so he'd be better at this than we are."

I thought this was a very reasonable suggestion, we had been at this for at least half an hour and so far, our plans consisted of 'morph…um, something' and that was about it. But Sam did not take well to constructive criticism of her leadership and planning skills.

"We do not need Philip for this!" she snapped. "I can do this on my own!" She was getting rather peeved off, both to the fact that she couldn't plan a route to save her life (oh, Boom Boom!) and that fact that I was lounging around, trying to catch a spider in the ventilation shaft and clearly being more than laid back about the whole thing.

"Ok," I said, trying to resolve peace. "You're the boss."

Eventually, when we had managed to half-sort out a plan, I spotted two dark shapes in the sky, heading towards us. Philip and Maggie had returned, and Maggie had obviously got herself a bird-of-prey morph. The two of them landed beside us – Philip began to demorph immediately, but Maggie flapped her wings and did a sort of bird-of-prey fashion show. It looked like she'd at last got the hang of morphing. Her first one didn't go down too well with any of us, but I think she had enjoyed being a bird. Flying is fun.

I gaped. Her morph was huge! Bigger, even than Philip's buzzard morph!

"What on earth is that?" I asked Maggie, ducking as her six-foot wingspan almost knocked me off my feet.

--It's called a White Tailed Eagle,-- Maggie said, swollen with pride. --Largest bird in the UK. Bigger, aye, than the Golden Eagle.-- She had a Scottish accent, which was obvious even whilst speaking in morph.

"Wow," I said. It certainly put my little hobby falcon in its place. "That's pretty amazing."

--Aye,-- said Maggie. --I wanted a decent morph to make up from that horrid experience I had as a beetle. This was the best morph I could find.-- She squawked, ruffling her wings noisily.

"Great stuff," I said. "What other morphs did you get?"

--Well, a goose, like Sam said. Except, I don't think it was actually a goose I got at all, but a swan.--

"A swan? Don't you know the difference!"

--Yes, of course I know! I just couldn't see the whole bird! It was a bit scary acquiring it! They can break your arms with their necks, you know. But there was this one goose, or swan, sitting in a hutch-like thing put there by the keepers. It had its bum sticking out, but I couldn't tell if it was a goose or a swan. So I acquired it anyway. It doesn't matter,-- she laughed, seeing the look on my face, --Geese and swans are both excellent long-distance travellers, and they look the same in the sky anyway!--

"True," said Philip, who was already mostly human.

"What other animals did you acquire?" asked Sam.

--I got the swan and the eagle, and I also got a wolf. That will be great for fighting as well as travelling. Wolves have a unique bone structure in their legs, you know, which means they can run tirelessly for hours on end.--

"I acquired the wolf, too," pointed out Philip.

--Plus a tawny owl and a dolphin.--

"I've got a dolphin morph!" I said. "They're great fun! I can't wait to morph it!"

Philip ignored me, and said,

"So, not a huge amount of animals, but we didn't have much time. The birds were easiest to acquire, which is why she has ended up with three. The wolf will be pretty universal, so she can use it for travelling when we're in deer morph."

"Should do us well," said Sam, nodding. "Come on, Mags, you'd better go back to human. You've only got two hours in morph, remember."

Maggie started demorphing. Her light, honey coloured feathers turned the pinkish peach of her skin, and dissolved into her skin. Her huge, yellow, hooked beak melted into her own nose and mouth. Bushy red hair sprouted (more wildly than my own, I may add) from the top of her head. Her fierce amber eyes slowly became larger and gentler. Ears popped out of the side of her head, fingers and toes reformed, replacing wings and talons. Her white feathered tail split in two and moulded into her legs. And, last but not least, a red and orange leotard appeared over her body and down her arms!

"I, err, took the liberty of acquiring Maggie a morphing outfit whilst she acquired the animals," said Philip.

"Very cool one, too," said Sam, admiring the flame designs of the velour leotard. "Where did you get it from?"

"Oh, er, just a little sports shop I spotted on the way back," Philip said vaguely.

Something wasn't registering here. What was it? Ah – of course!

"How did you pay for it?" I said, incredulously.

Philip blinked and ran the tip of his tongue round his upper lip. He does this when he's nervous – or about to tell a lie.

"I knew it!" I squealed triumphantly. "You nicked it, didn't you!"

"Nicking's not the word!" he retorted. "I was merely borrowing it! I have all intentions of returning it once-"

"What, once we get to America?"

"I'll find a way," he said loftily. "Besides, this is a case of life and death. I would expect everyone to be issued the correct kit."

"Right, well," said Sam, obviously feeling this was the point where she should step in. "Philip, maybe you shouldn't have stolen the leotard, but it's too late now. Besides, this is a matter of urgency. And Maggie definitely needs a morphing outfit. So we'll leave it for now, and if we ever find a way to pay the shop back, we'll do that. Agreed?"

"I absolutely love it when Sam gets all commanding like that," I joked.

"_Agreed?_" Sam repeated, glaring at me.


	6. Chapter 5: 2, 4, 6, 8, Motorway!

_**Author's Note**: There's a lot of British place names in this chapter. For those of you who aren't British (or are, but have a worse metal map than Ferdie), and want to know what the guys are talking about here, I suggest you have a quick look at an online map of the British Isles. There's loads around on Google and Yahoo._

Chapter 5

"I still don't see why we can't just get the train," I said grumpily.

"Ferdie, we're not getting the train!" said Sam. "It would probably be swarming with Controllers!"

"Plus," said Philip, a knowing look in his eyes, "You're no good with trains, are you, Flawless? You have no idea how they work. Remember that time you had go to London? You missed the train – and then ordered the station master to get you another one!"

Maggie burst out laughing. I rolled my eyes. "Come on," I said, "It wasn't like-"

But Philip carried on, nevertheless. "And, not to mention all that fuss about the Tube. Listen to this, Sam. He got on the Circle Line and went round and round in circles for two hours! He didn't even realise when he went past both his destination, and the station he got on at, twice!"

Ok. This was very true. I have no idea how to use public transport. Most of the time, if I want to go somewhere, I'll ride there on horseback, cross country. For trips further-a-field, I'll call up my dad's chauffeur and get driven there. Am I spoilt? Yes. Do I know how to live in the real world? No.

"Well, luckily for you, Ferdie," said Sam, trying to force back a smirk, "we're not going to be travelling by train. Or, like I said earlier, any type of human transport. We stick to morphing." She crouched down on one knee, and began to draw a map in the dirt and dust on the roof with her finger.

"This is what we do," she said. "Right. First things first. This is a map of Britain."

I peered at the 'map'. It looked like a picture of an egg with tail.

"Myself, and _Ferdie_," she said sarcastically, "have planned out our route. It wasn't easy, but we got there in the end. This, here," she said, placing a stone on the map, is Leeds, where we are. We have to get all the waaaay to here…" she placed another stone on the left hand side edge of the map, "to Cardiff. We find the way by following the motorways. We follow the M62, I think it is, to Manchester. Then, we go south, and follow the M6 to Birmingham." She drew a long line down the left hand side of the map. "Finally, we follow the M5 south-west to Cardiff. It shouldn't be difficult. We'll be birds, so no messing about in traffic jams. Our eyesight should be good enough to read the road signs. The motorways are pretty much straight lines, so it's a fairly efficient way of getting there"

"Ok, said Philip, nodding, his officer training pointing out to him the right questions to ask, "and which morphs do we use? Geese, hawks, owls or crows?"

"Well I thought that we should morph geese to do the long stretches and then hawks to do the shorter ones. Crows aren't meant for long distance flying, and Maggie doesn't have one anyway. Geese can travel at about 40 to 50 miles an hour, and hawks about 25 miles an hours, so I suggest that we go hawk for the first bit to Manchester, or owls when it gets dark. Then do a full, two hour stretch to Birmingham as goose, demorph, and do that again to Cardiff. It will take us between five and six hours in all, so we should try and get some sleep once we're in Cardiff. The next morning, we'll set off again. Cardiff's basically on the coast, so we can then decide if we want to carry on going over land across Wales, or get straight in the water there and then."

"How far is it?" asked Maggie.

"Well, I can't be totally sure without a map, but it's two-hundred miles from London to Leeds, and Cardiff is quite a few miles west than London, so I'd say about two hundred and thirty miles."

"Well, that's hardly anything, is it?" I scoffed. "We could make that in less than a day!" _Less, if we took the train_, I added to myself, but then withdraw it. Flying would be a lot more fun than any type of transport human beings had to offer.

"Flawless, you muppet," retorted Philip. "That's only to Cardiff. Don't forget the five thousand and seventy miles across the Pond and America."

"Oh yeah," I said, feeling my cheeks go red with embarrassment.

"Well, we still haven't figured out how we're going to eat," I said.

Sam sucked in her breath sharply. I suddenly remembered – that topic had caused a rather heated argument between Philip and Sam a few hours ago.

"Well," she said, rather reluctantly. "If the worse comes to the worst, we'll just have to do a Philip and grab what we can."

"Nick it, you mean?" I asked.

She nodded. "We have to eat, and none of us have any money on us. Just remember, when we're being chased down the street with rolls in our hands like urchins, just think 'this roll will save mankind from parasitic aliens'." She looked at Philip expectantly, for support.

"Quite. We need to eat? We eat."

"Good, well that's settled then. I suggest that we climb down the escape hatch to the street, try and grab something to eat now before we all starve, then come back up here, morph to raptors, and take off. Philip," she added. "Since you're the only one who has any sense of direction out of all of us, could you guide us?"

"Can do," replied Philip efficiently. "Don't forget, guys, when we're birds, we don't want to fly too close to one another, or it would look suspicious. Just close enough for us to still communicate via thought-speak. And Maggie, since you have a very rare bird of prey morph, you're more likely to attract attention, so it would be a good idea for you too fly higher and further out than the rest of us."

"Good thinking," said Sam. "Try not to attract too much attention – that applies to when we're in human form as well," she added, looking at me, grinning. "Right. Let's go for it."


	7. Chapter 6: Galvanise

Chapter 6

--Flying really is the coolest thing in the world, isn't it?-- said Maggie, euphorically.

--It sure is!-- I cried, finding myself a nice, hot thermal, and riding it the way up to the bellies of the clouds. Nothing a human could experience even comes close to flying like a raptor!

The four of us, having found something to eat, and clambering back to our hiding spot of the roof of Marks and Spencers, were now in birds-of-prey morph, like Sam had instructed. It was getting late, and the sun was beginning to set, but my raptor eye's were still laser-sharp. I could see not only the little cars so far below us, but also the people in the cars themselves. I glanced at the big, blue motorway sign, trying to remember where we were meant to be going. We were supposed to be following the motorway, several miles below us, but we were all too wrapped up in the experience of flying to be paying much attention to the task in hand.

--Guys, if we could try and veer a bit to the left…-- said Sam, trying desperately to get us back on track. --And if we could loose some altitude? These falcon eyes are good, but I can't tell which road is which from all the way up here.--

--Sure thing,-- I said, taking that as my cue to show off. I had been practising a certain move since we'd taken off, and I was dying to show everybody.

--Lets dive!-- I slipped into the falcon's mind, folded back my wings, and angled my beak towards the ground. I dove – a move made famous by the falcons, speeding towards the ground at over a hundred miles an hour. Not quite as fast a Perigrine, but still pretty amazing.

--Yaaaahhhhhhhhhh!-- I screamed to no'one and everyone. --Oh my Gaaahhhhd!--

What a rush! This was five-hundred percent, pure, unleashed adrenaline. I was shooting towards the ground like a bullet – nothing to stop me if I lost control, nothing to slow me down.

--Oh wow!-- shouted Maggie. --I want to try that!-- She swept back her wings and dove into oblivion – although, being the huge bulky eagle that she was, she couldn't do it quite as fast as I could.

--Ferdie? What the hell?-- spluttered Philip. --What are you doing!--

I opened my wings and slowed down, turning a sharp right and circling back upwards. Hobbies are able to perform some amazing aerial displays when trying the catch their food, and I was exploiting this ability to its limits.

--Sam said to descend, so I descended! Philip – have a go – it's unbelievable!--

--Again, I think I'll pass,-- muttered Philip in his sensible voice. –If you want to get yourself killed, you do that.—

I trained my falcon's eyes on his hawk form. Even though we were a couple of hundred meters away, I could still make out his individual, chocolate-brown feathers. It struck me that Philip had chosen a bird of prey morph that was very similar to his own personality. Or, should I say, his old personality, before he left the army. The buzzard was a large and magnificent bird, just like (and I forced myself to admit this,) Philip himself. However, the buzzard was also a very patient bird. From what I'd read on the little sign when we'd acquired the birds earlier in the afternoon (although, it seemed like a lifetime ago, now) buzzards could spend hours soaring the thermals, watching, waiting for a tiny, almost invisible clue that a mouse or rabbit was venturing out of it's nest. Then, it would wait for the precise moment, before diving down and catching the thing in it's sharp talons. This, I realised sadly, was just like how Philip had once been. Calm, collected, very, very patient. He would spend hours on whatever he was doing, making sure it was perfect, making sure there were no flaws in his plan, making sure nothing would go wrong. Now, however, the chap had changed. There was no doubt about that, considering what he'd been through. Now, Philip was impatient, restless. Impulsive – although not to the extent that I was. Unable to listen to others as much as he should. And, of course, unable to take command of a team.

--How long have we been in morph?-- asked Sam. --Anyone wanna go check?--

We'd been flying for a while now, a mile or so above the motorway. The conversation had long since worn thin, each of us lost in our own thoughts. I swooped downwards, spotting someone wearing a watch. My hobby eyes could easily make out the hands. It was just coming up to quarter to eight.

--Just over an hour,-- I said. It seemed like four.

--Good,-- said Samantha. --I think we're coming into Manchester now. This whole place is pretty urbanised, but I can make out signs of the city, like skyscrapers and stuff. Plus, I think I can see the airport. We should find somewhere to demorph. Philip, you still know which way we're meant to be going?--

--Yep,-- he replied, his thought-speak faint. He was flying further in front and a little lower than the rest of us. He slowed down to allow us to catch up, and we flew down in a rather dodgy looking group of raptors towards the nearest tall building.

--Premier Inn,-- I said, swooping towards a tall, white building and reading the sign. --Wish I could check in now and sleep. I'm knackered.--

--Sorry, Ferd,-- laughed Sam. --We're got a long way to go first! We'll sleep when we get to Wales.--

--Besides, Flawless, since when have you even gone to bed at eight? More like eight in the morning,-- Philip added. --You spend so much time partying at night, I'm surprised you even realised you're tired this early in the evening!--

I laughed. Again, Philip had point his finger right on the mark and knocked me off my throne. He soared downwards towards the roof of the hotel, handed perfectly, and started to demorph. Sam landed next, not quite as gracefully as Philip, then me. I too landed flawlessly. As perfect as a head-over-tail roll can be. Sam burst out laughing as flapped my wings and tried to stand up again. Maggie landed last, her huge silhouette of her eagle morph making my falcon's mind apprehensive. I started my demorph.

--Righty-ho,-- chirped Sam, once we were all fully human, standing around like prats in our morphing outfits. --Let's go goose,--.


	8. Chapter 7: Heirs and Spares

Chapter 7

Being a goose was is very different to being a falcon. Falcons, hawks and eagles are meant for lazy flying, soaring high up on the thermals, waiting for some tasty prey to come along. Falcons were great at aero-acrobatics, but they get knackered out really quickly. And all type of raptors, once they have eaten, pretty much lose the motivation to do anything for hours after that. They'll just sit in a tree, digesting their meal.

--I feel like I could go on forever!-- cried Maggie.

Geese, and swans, on the other hand, can fly forever. Their high powered wings are like the engines of a Bowing 747, relentlessly, tirelessly flapping onwards and onwards, for hours at a time. This is your captain speaking: We were cruising through the air, several miles up where the air was thinner, so as to avoid so much air resistance, and flying at around 45 miles an hour. It was difficult to tell, as there was nothing but sky to help us judge our speed, but the goose seemed to know. This was the goose's life, up here in the sky with its brothers. Not gathered around a pond, hissing at children and trying to steal their sandwiches.

The four of us were now in the familiar V formation. Sam was out the front, leading the way, with me and Maggie – in her graceful swan morph – right behind her. Philip was taking up the rear.

--Why do geese fly like this?-- I asked. --Why a V? What's wrong with an F shape?--

--It's to ensure that the geese at the back make the best possible use of the air, -- replied Maggie. --The goose in front reduces the air resistance so that the others can fly more easily. The further back you are, the easier it is to fly. It's more aerodynamic, and allows the birds to fly for longer.--

--What, so Philip's getting it easy?-- I said, slightly annoyed.

--'Fraid so!-- laughed Maggie. --But this will make you feel better. The V shape also allows for dominance. The further forward you are, the more important. The goose in lead is always the most dominant member of the group – and she's always female.--

--Score!-- laughed Sam. --I hope I don't get exhausted, though, being at the front?--

-- Geese usually swap positions every few hours, with a goose from the back coming to relieve the dominant goose at the front, so they don't get worn out,--Maggie continued.

--How do you know all this?-- I asked her, amazed by her knowledge.

--My parents used to work with animals and peoplein Africa and Australia,-- she said. --I used to spend all my holidays out there with them, so I kind of grew up with animals. I guess you just absorb useless information over the years.--

We flew on, the four of us, like miniature Air Force Ones. On and on, tirelessly through the air. I had no idea what Sam was thinking, whether she really did have some kind of plan to get us these five thousand miles, or whether she was just making it all up as she went along. The bit I was worried about was crossing the Atlantic. Whether we were geese or sharks or dolphins, the fact of the matter was, if we got tired and wanted a break, we couldn't just find the nearest island and take a nap. Once we'd started, there would be no turning back.

But hey, like I said before, I'm not one to dwell on things. I live for the moment, and worry about crossing bridges when I come to them. I slipped back into the goose mind and let my human mind take the passenger seat to enjoy the flight. The ground below us had become more and more rural as we flew away from the city, but eventually began to swing back into urban mode as we neared Birmingham. I was glad we had animals to do the flying for us – there's no way we'd have managed to go this far using human transport without getting lost. Our eyes were pretty good, not quite as sharp as our raptor morphs, but still good enough so that we could keep an eye on the motorway below. It turned out, however, that the geese knew how to fly in the same direction anyway. Geese are migratory, and have an excellent sense of direction. Far better than mine, I'd better add. Mind you, it's not that difficult to have a better sense of direction than me. A maggot has a better sense of direction than I do.

--Ok, guys, I think we're here,-- said Sam, after about an hour and three quarter's flight. --We'd better demorph. We've been geese and swans for almost two hours.--

--I'm hungry again!-- I whinged. –My goose body, _and_ my human body!--

--Well,-- Sam said, speaking to me as if I was a moaning child in the back seat, --we can get something to eat again in Birmingham. Try and look for some money on the ground, before you demorph, if you can, I don't want to risk a scene like last time again.--

I laughed, in thought-speak. The scene Sam was referring to involved my attempts to steal a tray of hot dogs from a stand in Leeds. I'd swiped the tray, and legged it back to the roof of the Marks and Sparks building. The whole time, the fat guy who owned the stand had been yelling and chasing after me with a stick, raving like a lunatic. Luckily, I'd managed to out run him with no problems, but I had left a bunch of on-lookers looking rather amused.

We landed on the roof of some two story chip shop in the centre of Birmingham – or, as the locals call their city, Brummie. Sam, Philip and Maggie demorphed. Philip was still the fastest morpher, he was almost fully human before I'd even got rid of my feathers, but his morphs were still as weird to watch as mine or Sam's. Maggie, however, seemed to be able to control the order of her morphing, although it took her longer than the rest of us. I hung back in goose morph, scanning the ground for money (although all my goose brain seemed to be interested in was rubbish and junk food!) and eventually spotted a fiver on the ground below.

I demorphed, climbed down the fire escape and grabbed the fiver before some ragamuffin nabbed it. Entered the little takeaway and bought a bag of fish and chips with several sauces and four bottles of water. Greasy, messy, fatty chips, but oh-so-tasty to my starved human body. I took the stuff up to the others, proud of myself for not causing a scene like last time, and handed out the food and water. Not exactly a gourmet meal, but at least we were all happy chappies as we devoured our dinner. I sat next to Sam and we shared our chips and some garlic sauce. She must be the only other person I've ever met who likes garlic sauce on her chips.

"God, I haven't had a good British takeaway like this for years!" I laughed, dipping a chip into the smelly, creamy sauce. "I think my father would have a fit if he saw me now!"

"Aye, in between watching you turn into animals?" laughed Maggie, stuffing fish into her mouth as if she hadn't eaten for weeks.

"Got that right!"

Maggie eyed me for a second, tomato sauce smeared on her bottom lip.

"Are you, like, a lord or something?" she blurted, ignoring the arched eyebrows from Philip.

I laughed. "God, no! Me?" I cried. "Can you imagine me, as a lord?"

"Oh! Well I just thought, because you're so rich, and your voice, and Philip said you played polo and all…"

"Well, I suppose my family is rather grand." I said, with as much modestly as I could muster. It's quite difficult to be modest when you're talking about your ennobled family. "But we're not like royals or anything! We're not even that rich. More like old fashioned country squires. My great-uncle Edvard Lawless has a title though – he's formally known as Baron Archington, and owns quite a lot of land. One of his houses has a zoo - that's where we got most of our morphs from."

"Wow," she said, awestruck. I felt my cheeks going red again, my embarrassment fighting my pride of my family. "So will you be a baron one day?"

"Nah. Only the eldest sons inherit the glory. My grandfather was one of the 'spares', and my father was the youngest of all his brothers, so although we got a handsome house and some land, I won't get anything like my second-cousin will."

I winked at Maggie. "My cousin's looking for a nice lady to share his fortune with, I may add!" I laughed.

But Maggie did not laugh. Instead, she was staring at something behind me, a look of terror and confusion on her face. Sam and I turned round to see what see was looking at.

"Oh, my god," I muttered.

Sam was more direct. "CCTV!" she yelled.


	9. Chapter 8: Maggie's Struggle

Chapter 8

Sam threw down her chips. She jumped up and twisted the security camera round so it faced the wall.

"Let's get out of here, before a Controller sees that footage!" she yelled. "Morph – geese – now!"

We morphed back to goose and swan at top speed. Multiple morphing and demorphing in a short space of time like we were doing is exhausting. Each morph feels like you've just sprinted a hundred meters. You're not hanging, but you want to wait a while before you give it another go. But unfortunately for us, we didn't have that wait.

"Come on, guys, you're doing great," Sam encouraged us. "Mags – don't worry about making it look pretty, just do it!"

Luckily, although morphing wears you out, it also releases a burst of adrenaline into your body (or the equivalent for whatever animal you're becoming). So a little shot of the 'rush-drug' gave me the burst of strength I need to complete my morph and get in the air.

--Guys, lets get going!-- shouted Sam. She was already fully goose, flapping her great grey wings and taking off into the air. Philip and I were right behind her.

--Maggie!-- called Philip! --Hurry up!--

--I'm so tired!-- gasped Maggie, struggling to take off.

--Just get in the air!-- yelled Philip impatiently.

--But…--

--Philip, yelling at her is not going to do any good,-- scolded Samantha. --You're ok, Maggie, you can do this. Wait til you have a bit of lift under your wings, then flap, hard. Use the swan's mind. She knows how to fly.--

Suddenly, Maggie stretched her wings out fully and stuck her neck out straight. She caught a tiny uplift of air, rose swiftly, and joined us in the sky. We flapped away, away from the cameras, in search of the motorway yet again.

--You did great, Maggie,-- said Sam, beaming. Then, raising her voice and addressing us all, she said,

--If any of us get into difficulties, or gets left behind, we help them, ok? We don't leave anyone, and we don't get in a temper if one of us can't do something immediately. Ok?--

--Absolutely,-- I said.

--Yeah, yeah,-- replied Philip haughtily. He could tell the speech was aimed at him, and was feeling bad, because once upon a time he would have been able to do what Sam had just done.

We flapped up higher into the darkening sky, desperate to loose any Controllers before they found us and started looking for a group of four animals. I was beginning to think we should have morphed owls, rather than geese, as they had better eyesight in poor light and were better at hovering than geese. But Sam obviously planned for us to continue with the next stage of our journey immediately.

--Right, guys," said Sam. "Two things. Firstly, we need to find the M5. If we follow this, it will lead us nearly all of the way to Cardiff. Philip, can you guide us on that task, please?--

--Sure thing,-- he replied, having cheered up a little now that Sam was showing him some respect.

--Secondly,-- Sam continued, --we have to accept that fact that we might have just been seen. --So we have to start being extra careful to act like real birds. No more swooping suddenly out of formation to read the road signs. We fly down gradually, incase anyone is watching us. And, we keep a look out for helicopters or light aircraft that could be Controllers.--

We followed the M5 south, a mile above the tail-back of traffic on the ground. It actually took us a while to figure out which road was the M5, as we'd flown over a dreadfully complicated junction during which some motorway or another met a load of other roads. From the air, it was an incredible sight. The whole junction looked like a big, tangled mess of roads, railways, and even a canal.

--Spaghetti Junction,-- Philip had said.

--What?-- I had said.

--Junction 6 of the M6,-- Philip had explained. --One big fat mess of motorways, 'A' roads and slip roads. Brum's sprawling concrete jungle. A strangely amazing feat of human engineering.--

--Fascinating,-- I had said sarcastically. --Just looks like a big bag of worms to me, put there to confuse humanity and geese alike. Where's this M5, or whatever it is we're meant to be following?--

It turned out that the M5 was nowhere near this junction over which we were flying, and Philip had led us in completely the wrong direction. I would have snorted at him if I'd had a human mouth, but eventually had to make to with a mutter of,

--Philip, you muppet.--

Philip eventually located this motorway and we flapped our way through the air, following it south, hopefully out of sight of any Controllers. I tell you, people complain about not having decent directions when they're driving, but I have to say now, that it's more difficult following roads when you're flying!

--What a wild goose chase,-- I laughed. Boom Boom! Flawless makes another excellent bad joke!

We carried on swimming. Hehe, just kidding. We're all still flying. I'm just getting bored with starting every other sentence with 'we flew on…' The whole thing was becoming rather boring, for me at least. It's not that the flying in itself was boring. It was just that it was flying in the same manner, at the same speed, in the same direction. Like driving a Ferrari at top speed, but for miles on end in a straight line. I have to say, it does take the fun out of the whole thing a bit. Philip was probably enjoying the safe, solid, predictable flight. I would have much preferred to be in my falcon morph, where I could at least have some fun performing my Top Gun fighter pilot manoeuvres.


	10. Chapter 9: Top Gun

**Author's Note: _Thanks so much to those of you who have reviewed so far! I probably would never have written this much so quickly if it wasn't for you guys!_**

Chapter 9

Eventually, after about an hour and a half of endless flapping, I got my wish and things became a bit more exciting. The sky was nearly dark now, and emerging in the distance, I could make out two little pin-pricks of light to the left of us, clearly visible against the navy sky.

--Tell me that's not a helicopter, I see, looming towards us!-- I said.

--Oh, god, what now?-- moaned Philip.

I strained my eyes on the shape around the pin-pricks. It was most definitely a helicopter. I tried to see inside the windows, to see who was piloting. I wished I had my raptor eyes. I had the terrible feeling its occupants was watching us, too.

--Jeez!-- yelped Maggie suddenly. --Did anyone see what it just did!--

--No!- replied Sam. --What?--

--It just shot down a couple of herons! There's a flock of herons, a mile or so to the east, and the helicopter flew round beside them and shot two of them out of the sky!--

I stared in the direction of the chopper. It was very high, almost level with us, much higher than most helicopters dare venture. And, sure enough, I could just make out the hazy outlines of a flock of birds on the wing, flying, like us, in a loose V formation. I watched. Suddenly – another bird plummeted to earth! They were killing innocent birds in their search for us! And then…

--Sam!--I yelled. --It's heading this way!--

Sam snapped into heroine mode immediately. I love it when she does that. --Ok, everyone, so we know we've been seen. They're almost certainly Controllers. Just act like real geese. If they see us go off course, or suddenly fly away when they head towards us, they'll know we're human.--

--We're three geese and a swan!-- I pointed out. --How dodgy does that look!--

--Different species of migrating birds often join up in formation,-- Maggie replied.

--Well, I don't think the Controllers know that,-- I gushed.

The chopper rose in altitude as it veered towards us. I could now make out the shape of the helicopter very clearly. Big and black, with reflective windows – just like the one that greeted us most graciously by the supermarket. As it loomed ever closer, I could even begin to make out the silhouettes of the people inside. Two figures. One flying. And another, with a-

--Dracon beam!-- I yelped. --They're pointing Dracon beams at us!--

--Ok, don't panic,-- said Sam, trying to keep the panic out of her own voice. --Just, act naturally. Give them no reason to shoot at us.--

But I just had to go and mess things up.

The helicopter was flying right along beside us now. The noise was deafening. Up in the air, without the noise from ground level drifting up this high, it can be very quiet apart from the whoosh and whistles of the wind in your wings. Now, however, the sounds of the chopper's blades blocked out everything else. The pilot – a Yeerk in the body of a twenty something girl, narrowed her eyes as she levelled the chopper beside us. And then I noticed something that scared even a daredevil like me half to death.

The sniper was pointing his Dracon beam right at me.

--Oh, god!-- I yelled! I wondered if the Controllers could hear thought-speak. If they could, we were toast.

--Ferdie!-- Maggie's though-speak echoed in my head.

--Ferdie, don't pull away!-- ordered Sam. --We'll try and distract them!--

But their pleads were no good. Whether it was my bird or human brain doing the thinking, I couldn't just cruise along acting as if nothing was happening. I ignored Sam's order. I tucked my wings in, pulled hard to my right, and swooped downwards – just as a flash of Dracon scorched the air where I'd been a second ago. I could see a grin flash across the young Controller's face. Even though he hadn't hit me, he knew that this was the clue he'd been waiting for. Normal geese definitely don't dodge Dracon beams.

--Flawless, you idiot!-- screamed Philip. --Now they know we're human!--

--Would you prefer it if I'd got shot?-- I yelled back. I mean, come on. What a comment to make.

Luckily Sam was there to rescue us from our bickering.

--Let's descend!-- she called out. --Get down to ground level. We'll have to carry on in non-bird morphs. Try and split up on the way down! Spread out their targets!--

The four of us immediately switched into our geese or swan minds, turned our beaks towards the ground, and flapped for all we were worth. Philip and I glided slightly to the left, by tipping our right wings upwards, whilst Sam and Maggie did the same but to the right. I dove downwards as fast as I could, feeling the wind whipping my eyes. It was nowhere near like diving as a hobby, but it was the best I could do. Philip was on my tail, snaking his way through the air, left-right-left-right to avoid flying in a straight line, which would make it easier for the enemy to target him – a tactic he'd learnt as an officer in the army. Above us, the helicopter hovered for a second, the Controllers obviously unsure which of us to go for. But, of course, they soon made up their minds.

--They're going for Sam!-- yelled Maggie, somewhere above me and to my right.

--I'm fine!-- Sam called. She, like Philip, was weaving her way like a fighter jet through the air, nimbly missing fires of Dracon. --You guys keep going!--

I saw her tuck in her wings and attempt to dive down like I had, directly beneath the helicopter. The helicopter tried to chase after her, but despite being top of the range and fitted with advanced alien technology, it was a huge, lumbering flying elephant compared to Sam. It couldn't turn around to face in Sam's direction, and the Dracon beams had been fixed, immovable, to the underside of the chopper, meaning that the Controller could only shoot them forwards. This was the same with the headlights; the sky was dark now, and the lights - although disorientating and bright enough to light a stadium, it seemed - they could only light up what was in front. By the time it had spotted us, and manoeuvred to get itself in position again, the four of us were pretty much out of sight. I breathed a mental sigh of relief. We were safe – for now. But I'd bet it wouldn't take them long to find us again, once we were on the ground. One thing was for sure; we wouldn't be able to use our geese morphs any time soon.


	11. Chapter 10: Field Weekend

Chapter 10

We flapped wildly for a while, half descending, half trying to get as far away from the Controllers as possible.

--Ok, everybody, -- said Sam, as we flew back down through the atmosphere, --lets try and aim for those woods there.--

--Which woods?-- I asked.

--The one with that random tall tree in the middle, near the stream,-- said Sam.

We were long since out of the city, now. Before we'd been spotted by the Controllers, we'd better flying for almost our full two hours and Sam had probably planned us to demorph and remorph to goose at sometime to continue on out way to Cardiff, where we'd at last try to get some sleep. But as I looked down at the landscape below, I saw that we were pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Woods and forests stretched out in all directions, covering pretty much the majority of the land. They were bordered by vast hills – possibly mountain ranges – to the west, looking like huge green whales growing out of the horizon. To the east, behind us, were meandering lakes and streams, snaking their way through the countryside. Between these, huge stretches of meadow. Some were host to bridle ways. I would love to go riding here once this thing was all over. Then, of course, I could just, literally be the horse and forget about riding. It must be incredible to gallop over these hills. In the low light, I could just about make out herds of sheep and goats grazing in the fields and on the mountains. And, of course, as we came into land, my goose eyes saw every animal no human would ever see, from tiny bugs crawling on the ground, mice and other small mammals venturing out of their holes, and – rather terrifying to my goose brain – plenty of large owls swooping about. To my human mind, an incredible sight.

The four of us glided downwards into the trees, landing within a hundred meters or so of each other. We stayed in morph for a moment, so that we could find each other using thought speak, rather than having to yell as humans.

--Well, I'm pretty sure we lost them,-- I said optimistically, once we had all met up again.

--You shouldn't ever say that,-- laughed Maggie. --We're bound to tempt fate if you say that.--

We started the demorph - three Canadian geese and a mute swan. It was pretty dark, especially with very little moonlight getting through the trees, but I could still make out some of the major changes that were happening to me, and the others.

My long goose neck suddenly sucked inwards. It felt as if I was suddenly shrugging my shoulders really severely. My large, plump, goose body began to elongate into my human body. It didn't hurt, but it did feel like I was being sucked through a tight rubbery tunnel - pressure on me from all sides. The enormous rump of the goose became my toned little behind. My waddling legs and feet grew muscular and fleshy as they reformed into my familiar legs, sill clad in my riding breeches and very tight leather riding boots that I'd managed to incorporate into my morphing outfit. I'd told Sam it had taken about three goes to be able to morph those boots. Actually, it had taken around twenty - but she didn't need to know that. I was very glad I had those boots. Even though they were far too small for me, and were difficult to walk in, it was better than being barefoot, like the girls. The changes were happening quickly now - partly from practice, partly because my fear made me concentrate more on the morphing. And it wasn't a fear of the Controllers, either. Embarrassed as I am to admit it, it was the dark I was scared of. Yup. Plain old childish phobia of the dark.

It seemed to be getting a little darker, too, now that my goose eyes were being replaced by my weaker human eyes. My hearing too, dulled, and I was suddenly no longer able to hear all the sounds of the wildlife around me. My head was growing, spouting my wild red hair. My beak - so unlike the beak of the falcon - was melting into my own mouth and nose. I was a human boy - with arms still like the wings of the goose. Philip - fully human - seemed to notice.

"You planning to fly with those wings, Flawless?" he laughed.

"I think it looks pretty cool!" said Maggie, just crossing the line from thought- to normal speech. She had managed to make her demorph look pretty cool - she was almost entirely human, but still fully coated in the soft white feathers of the swan. Finally, the feathers faded away and were replaced by her red morphing outfit.

I finished demorphing my arms and walked over to Sam, who was now her lovely human self, and put my head on her shoulder. I hope she wasn't offended - it's the kind of thing I do without really thinking about it. Sam rolled her eyes at Maggie, who sniggered.

"Come on, Flawless," she said. "I think we need to get you to bed."

"Is that an offer?" I asked, excitedly?

"You wish," she laughed, ruffling my hair affectionately and pushing me away. "I think we should all try and sleep." She looked around on the ground. "This terrain's pretty uncomfortable looking," she said.

Philip scoffed. He'd been on army training weekends and had probably had to sleep in worse conditions than these. "Looking for the nearest en-suite?" he said.

"I just think we should try and find somewhere with a bit more cover, incase it rains, and not as many tree roots sticking up out of the ground. Maybe we should go owl morph quickly and find somewhere."

Philip rolled his eyes, but I embraced this offer. "Oh, yes!" I exclaimed. "God, I've been dying to try out my owl morph all day!"

"You've been dying to try out every morph you've acquired," laughed Sam. "But, yeah, I think we should all go owl. Maggie, you have an owl morph, don't you?"

"Yeah, I've got a tawny owl."

"Great stuff. Philip, you ok with that?"

"Well, I still don't see with what's wrong with where we are now, but, yeah, fine, I'll go."

We began to morph to owl. By now, the repeated morphing and remorphing was making me pretty tired now. I could see that Maggie was feeling the same. She stifled a yawn - right before her mouth hardened into a black beak.

I concentrated on the image of the barn owl in my mind. I felt similar changes take place as when I morphed my hobbie. Creamy white feathers draw themselves on my skin, like an all over tattoo. Then, the feathers suddenly popped up out of my skin as they began 3D. I began to shrink, but my eyes were growing huge. My face flattened out, my ears shrinking away. My face became the distinctive heart shape of the barn owl - reminiscent of a satellite dish, which assists the owl in giving it excellent hearing. My hands and arms stretched out, my bones remoulding and hollowing into the owl's wing bones. Legs and feet shrank, but grew huge, sharp talons - perfect for grasping and hanging onto prey. My vision and hearing suddenly switched to owl - and I could see and hear everything! It was far better than my vision had been as a goose, and about a million times better than when I was human. It was like someone had switched on the sun inside the wood. Everything was as bright and as easy to see as if it were midday. The only unusual thing was the sky, which was still dark. I was no longer scared on the dark, in this body. I hooted.

--Wow,-- I said to the others. --Talk about night vision. I bet you would have liked this in the army, rather than those infer red things you had, right, Philip?--

Philip's owl head spun round at me. --Shut up, Ferdie,-- he said.

Opps. I forgot. Don't mention the war.

--Ready, guys?-- Sam asked.

I twit-twooed in reply.

--Kewl,-- she said. --Lets get airborne. Follow me, boys and girls.--


	12. Chapter 11: Time and Time Again Night

Chapter11

After a few minutes, Sam spotted a flattish area of ground, sheltered by a few rocks and thicker trees. The stream also ran near and my owl eyes saw that the water was pretty clear - so we'd be able to have something clean to drink. We soared through the trees, landed under the rock, and demorphed.

"Well that was rather pointless," said Philip, picking up branches and stones and clearing a spot for us. "We could have just walked."

"Yeah, well, it would have taken longer on foot and with human eyesight," I pointed out.

"Where are we, anyway?" asked Maggie.

"Considering our direction and the length of time taken to get here, probably somewhere in Wales. Still a while from civilisation though, and a long way from Cardiff."

"I think one of us should stand guard at all times whilst the others sleep. Morph deer or wolf to keep a look out," said Sam, here eyes peering through the trees.

"A 'stag' rota," nodded Philip. "Take it in turns - two hours at a time"

"That should give us a good eight hours sleep in all," said Sam. "Six hours each. We'll set off again in the morning, when it's lighter."

"Morph to stag - to be on stag!" I laughed.

"That was an awful joke, Flawless," said Philip, raising an eyebrow.

"That was a brilliant joke!"

"That was an awful joke, Flawless," he insisted. He looked at Sam. "Maybe it would actually be a better idea to carry on now, rather than sleeping," said Philip. "We've got a while to go yet, and it would be safer to travel at night, under the cover of darkness."

Sam shook her head. "We're all too tired. We need to rest. We've been on the go since early this morning - and we didn't get much sleep last night. Not to mention yesterday and the day before, when we were still on board the spaceship!"

She looked round at our sad little group. "Who wants to be on stag first?"

"I'll go," I said.

Sam peered at me. "Are you sure?" she asked. "I thought you wanted some sleep."

"You guys look worse," I laughed. "Besides, I've woken up a bit now. I was only tired because of the repeated morphing and demorphing. You guys snuggle down."

"Ok, sure. Philip - you next, then Maggie, and I'll do the last shift and wake everyone up." She paused, as if something had occurred to her.

"How are we going to tell the time?" she wondered. "We can't stay in morph over two hours, as we'll get stuck."

"You can tell them time using the stars," said Philip, switching to Survivor mode. "Like using a sundial. If you move out of the trees a bit so you can see the stars, you can use the Plough and the Northern star to help tell you the time."

"I've heard about that!" said Maggie. "My parents would sometimes use it on their travels. Thank goodness it's not cloudy!"

"How accurate is it?" asked Sam

"You can tell the time to the hour, but with practise, you can be more precise."

"How do you do it?"

"Well, first you have to find the North Star. You can do this by looking for the Plough. It's that set of seven stars just to the north of us. Those two stars on the right hand sight form a line, and if you carry on that imaginary line, it takes you to the North star."

"Oh, I see it!" said Sam. She was having better luck than I was.

"Philip," I said, "there's about twenty stars making a line. How can you tell which one it is!"

"It's the first one you come to if you stretch the imaginary line about five times out into the sky."

Eventually I spotted it. God knows how I would find it again.

"That line acts as the hand of a kind of twenty-four hour clock. The North Star stays fairly constant, but the plough moves round it. You just determine what angle the imaginary line is in relation to the North Star. Think of the circle like a normal, twelve hour clock. Work out what time it shows - and then double that number. That will give you the time in twenty-four hours. Unfortunately, because of seasons, that also changes things. At the beginning of March, the clock faces upwards - like normal. But for every month, the clock rotates in the sky - the equivalent of two hours on a 24 hour clock. As it is now nearly September, the clock will be twelve hours later than a normal clock."

"So, it would be upside down? How very confusing!" asked Sam. She was obviously picking this up better than I was.

"Precisely. The last time we knew the time it was about eight o clock. We've done two full-time flights since then, and had a break, so it's probably about half past midnight or coming up to one o clock. And if you look at the stars, the line is pointing downwards and slightly to the left, which shows that I'm about right."

Sheesh. The arrogance of that boy.


	13. Chapter 12: Prince of the Forest

Chapter 12

The others settled down and watched as I morphed stag for the first time. I had been looking forward to morphing this one. The stag was a fabulous, stately animal, conjuring up images of majesty and grandeur. My own stag morph was a male fallow deer, acquired at my uncle's estate. It would be perfect for the forest. I pictured the deer in my mind, but as I did so, it occurred to me that Maggie, and to an extent, Philip could sort of control their morphing. I wondered if I could do that too. Wouldn't it be cool if I could grow my antlers first? I pictured the antlers in my mind, willing my body to make those changes first. They did. I stepped into a small clearing, where it was a bit brighter, and grinned as the others stared it me. I felt the hard, bone like antlers emerge from my forehead. They grew huge, over a meter from tip to tip. The antlers were different to each other - not symmetrical. I stood up straight and grinned. It must have looked spectacular.

Big mistake. The weight of my antlers was too much for my human neck and back! I stumbled forward, the antlers dragging me towards the ground. _Oomph!_ I hit the ground with a thud, my face buried in the grass, my antlers stuck into the ground.

"Flawless, you muppet," laughed Philip. "What a thing to do!"

"Whoopsey!" I giggled, glad that it was too dark for the others to see my red face. I resumed my concentration on the stag and felt the changes continue. I was careful to focus on my neck and back so that they would grow muscular enough to hold up my antlers. Morphing the deer was a lot like a couple of other morphs I'd done. The very first morph any of us had done, apart from Maggie, was an Andalite morph. We'd acquired Eramas, the captain of our rescue ship in order to help us escape from Hork-Bajir Controllers aboard the Skrit-Na ship. That seemed like a lifetime ago now. Morphing the deer was similar to morphing Eramas, except I no longer retained my humanoid torso and arms, and of course, the tail wasn't as fun. It was also like morphing my horse - the first morph I'd performed on my own. That was pretty amazing. And now, I could feel the similar changes happening to my body. Reddish brown fur covering my body. My arms and legs elongating and switching direction. My hands and feet becoming the hard hooves of the stag. I was already on all-fours, and was now able to push myself into the standing position of the stag. My neck was fully deer now and I found I was able to hold my head with its huge antlers up again without much effort. My senses improved as I finished off the changes, making the forest come alive again. My hearing was great, although not quite as good as the owl's. My sense of smell was fantastic. I realised that I kept licking my nose with my little deer tongue. Maggie later told me that it was to keep my nose moist to attract more air molecules from which I could sense different odours. My sense of sight was decent, a little better than my human eyes for the dark. I was unable to see in colour though - it was like watching the world in shades of grey. Suddenly, the deer's mind kicked in. I was so preoccupied with being in a new body, I forgot that the instinct of the animal you're morphing is also part of the package.

Movement! What's that? New smells! Human? Ohmigod, humans, so very near! Right there - in front of me! I'd better run! Got to get out of sight! I powered my elegant deer legs into action and galloped away, out of sight of the foe.

"Ferdie!" A voice! But irrelevant to my deer mind.

"Hey, Flawless? What are you doing? Come back!" Another voice! And louder too! The enemy as approaching!

"Flawless - you need to get control of your morph! Ferdie! Can you hear me? It's Sam. You need to snap out of it - you have a job to do! God, where's he gone? He's disappeared and I can't see a thing in this darkness. I wasn't bargaining on this…"

Sam? Wasn't Sam… she not an enemy! She's Sam! Oh! And I'm Ferdie!

--Oh, god-- I blurted, in thought-speak. --Sorry, guys! Got a bit carried away there for a moment! I'm coming back now.--

I held my head high as I trotted back over to my friends, not letting the fact that I'd just embarrassed myself - yet again - in front of them all. Philip rolled his eyes. Maggie was smiling. "Got us a little worried there, Ferd!"

--Hehe,-- I laughed. --Yeah, just to warn you Sam, the stag is a little hard to control. Your reindeer might be too, Philip.--

"Doubt it will be that bad," sneered Philip.

Sam stepped in yet again to end our sibling squabbling. "Ok, Ferdie, no offence but we're going to try and get some sleep now. You watch out for any Controllers or whatever. After two hours, wake Philip up. Then you do the same, Philip, and wake Maggie up. You two can both morph wolves. Maggie, you wake me up at about six thirty in the morning. I'll wait everyone up at sometime after eight."

The others settled back and tried to get to sleep. I was glad I'd chosen to be on stag first. Unbeknown to the others - and I was surprised Philip hadn't worked this one out - I'd chosen to go on stag first so that I wouldn't get woken up in the middle of the night. Once I'd done my bit, I'd get my full, uninterrupted six hours. I kicked at the ground with my front hooves, already bored. I pointed my deer eyes towards the sky and tried to look out for helicopters. Nope. None there. What about in the forest? Not really. Just a tasty looking patch of grass. Maybe I could… no! I was slipping back into the deer's mind. I had to keep alert. I watched the others. Philip was already fast asleep. Lucky boy. He wasn't a heavy sleeper, but he could drop off anywhere - another skill he'd learnt in the army. I realised that, however difficult he could be to get along with sometimes, he certainly knew a thing or two about survival in the wilderness. I glanced at Maggie. She was already snoring. She obviously slept like a log. Sam took a while to get to sleep. She was probably going over the entire day in her mind over and over again. If not, she was probably trying to work out what to do next. I was glad I wasn't in her position. I'm not too good at leading things. I'm not sensible enough and lack the ability as thinking ahead. Unless it was about pulling pranks. The only thing I was any good at organising and carrying out was playing tricks on Philip and other unsuspecting, deserving victims. I could probably think of a good way to wake him up, I thought. I had two hours to think about it.

An hour passed, according to the stars. Sam stirred. I watched her turn over in her sleep. She had finally drifted off. I hoped she wasn't cold. It was quite a warm night, but she was only wearing her thin morphing leotard, and no shoes. I realised then and there that I had become rather taken with Samantha. I cared about her, and I was sure she felt the same way about me, if not in a romantic sense. She was the complete opposite of most of the girls I knew from back home. These were the rich and spoilt lord's daughters I'd met at polo matches, or parties in London. These 'chukka chicks' were the upper class equivalent of footballer's wives - perfectly able to put on the airs and graces when the need arose, but as wild and as vulgar as any boy when out of the sight of their fathers. As glamorous as Sam was plain. But as superficial as Samantha was real. Samantha was a class of her own. Smart, sophisticated - and perfectly capable of leading a straggly band of fugitive freaks through blood and battle to our unknown fate. This, I admired. And, despite the fact that I had only known her a couple of days, I loved her for it.


	14. Chapter 13: Stand To!

Chapter 13

At long last, my time on look out duty was over. It was time for me to wake up Philip. Since nothing exciting had happened whilst I was sentry, I had spent much of my time (apart from fantasizing about Sam, that is) dreaming up ways to prank Philip. And at last I had come up with one. It had occurred to me that the Andalite Eramas had spoken to us using thought-speak, whilst we were being chased by the Hork-Bajir. He had, quite a few times, yelled out orders and direction. But the Hork-Bajir never seemed to notice them, or know what we were about to do. So, I speculated, maybe thought-speak could be transmitted privately. Just to a couple of people, or maybe just an individual. Perhaps you could swing the other way and broadcast your thought-speak publicly, for all to hear. A plan had hatched in my mind. I crept closer to Philip, still in stag morph. It was easier to be quiet and to sneak up on people if you're a deer. I took a quick look at him to make sure he was still asleep, then, to Philip only, I yelled in my loudest thought-speak,

--STAND TO!--

Philip's eyes snapped open immediately. I repeated the warning order that soldiers in the army use if their platoon harbour has been attacked.

--STAND TO!-- I yelled again. --STAND TO! STAND TO! STAND TO!--

Philip was in true officer mode now. His hands groped about in the dirt wildly, as if he was looking for his rifle. He patted his head, and grunted to find no helmet resting upon it. Suddenly, he woke up properly and glared at me, realising what I'd done.

"Ferdinand, you prat," he muttered sleepily. Then, more angrily, "What did you have to go and to that for?"

I began to demorph. --Because it was funny!-- I giggled childishly. --You should have seen the look on your face when you woke up. Hilarious! You're on sentry duty, now, if you hadn't guessed.--

"Yeah, well, I didn't find it funny," he snapped. "And you'd better get out of that Bambi morph before I go wolf and take you down, without having to look at your sorry face," he retorted.

As Philip morphed wolf and went on look out duty, I tried to snuggle down to sleep. I watched as Philip did he first wolf morph of any of us, and hoped he was better at controlling it's instincts than I had with the stag. It was difficult to see in the low light, but I was sure Philip had acquired a rare black wolf. It had huge yellowy eyes and sleek blackish blue fur that glimmered in the moonlight. Pretty cool, I thought, before I at last drifted off to sleep.

"Ok, guys, time to get up!" Sam's voice chipped happily.

"Ohhh! Whaat? Already?" I moaned sleepily. It seemed like only seconds ago I was demorphing from stag. I had managed to sleep reasonably well, but I still felt exhausted.

"Come on, Ferd, it's got to be after eight. Still got a long way to go yet. And you can do your stag morph again…"

This woke me up. The stag would be wide awake and alert even if it had just run a marathon. I stood up and stretched, brushing dirt off my clothes. The sun was fully risen now, and the sky was gorgeous and cloudless in the late August weather. Rare for Wales - where it usually rains continuously.

"I've even taken the liberty of getting us something to eat," said Sam, dropping a big handful of berries down in front of us. "There's water from the stream, too, if you want it. We shouldn't get dehydrated."

Philip yawned and peered at the berries. "What, you just picked those randomly?" he asked incredulously. "Do you even know if they're poisonous!"

"They're…raspberries," said Sam.

Philip started picking out berries and throwing them over his shoulder. "Can't eat that," he muttered. "Not that…it's poisonous…that tastes disgusting…"

Eventually he presented each of us with a very small helping of berries. "There you go. You can eat these ones."

"Is that all?" I asked.

"Unless you want to go hunting and start a fire, yes. That's your lot."

I raised my eyebrows and started eating the berries. Most of them were really sour or bitter, but some were sweet. When he'd eaten our pitiful breakfast, we trudged over to the stream and started lapping up the water.

"We should carry on in ground morphs," said Sam, looking up at the sky. "Once or twice last night, I thought I saw a helicopter or something fly over."

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Still making our way to Cardiff. I don't think we need to change plans any more than we have to. Philip, you guess we're somewhere in Wales-"

"Probably a while east of the Black mountains," he said.

"Which means we have to carry on South. We'll do most of it on foot, then, and once we get closer, we'll go raptor."

"Which way's south?" I asked. We were pretty much in the middle of nowhere and none of us had a compass.

"Well, the sun rises in the east, and it's morning," said Philip, rolling his eyes at me. "So that way is east," he said, facing into the sun. "If we get the sun on our left, then that way will be south."

"Great. Ok, then, everyone had enough to eat and drink?"

"No," I said.

"Good then. Philip and Maggie, you two want to go wolf? Me and Ferdie will morph stags again."

"Sure," said Maggie. "The wolf morph is cool. Great sense of smell, and it can run forever!"

"Excellent. Ok then, let's be off!"


	15. Chapter 14: Opinions

Chapter 14

The four of us set off yet again, like strange hikers. Philip was perking up, he was obviously enjoying his wolf morph.

--God, if only I'd had this morphing power in the army,-- he said. --We went on exercise in the Welsh mountains, once, and it took us hours to get anywhere. Now, I'm not even thinking about the hills!--

Philip is very unpredictable. Most of the time, he's sour and grumpy, and gives you filthy look if you mention the army. Now, however, he was chattering on about it as if there's had never been any problems.

Sam and I were both in our stag morphs, having never acquired a wolf. But the stags were fine for the mountain. They were so strong, and so sure footed, that we trekked up and down steep inclines as if they were a flat level road.

Two hours passed, according to Philip. We came to a stop and de- and remorphed, a quick break in between to have another drink of water from the river. Sam also spotted another helicopter, and we lay low for a bit. Philip assured us that it was probably just a military chopper - as there was a training area nearby - but Sam would never be too sure. Eventually, we set off again, but it wasn't long until we ran into our next problem.

--Couldn't we just walk round it?-- I asked.

The forest has stopped abruptly, and we were now standing at the edge of a very large, wide meadow. It was a beautiful sight, but there was no cover whatsoever, and what would make an even more beautiful for Controllers would be to see four animals trekking across like they were crossing the road.

--Or fly over?--

--We can't fly over, it would look suspicious to see four birds of different species flying over in the same direction,-- said Sam. --And we're not going round it, that would take ages. We'll have to cross it - very fast and very low to the ground, so that we don't get spotted.--

--What small morphs do we have that can sprint like that?-- asked Philip.

--Well, I have a greyhound morph…-- started Sam.

--That's great for you, what about the rest of us?-- snapped Philip.

Suddenly, movement to my deer eyes! --Guys, look! A hare!--

--What?-- said Philip.

--There's a hare, about thirty meters in front of us. That would be perfect to cross the meadow. Small, speedy, good camouflage.--

--Yeah, but that would mean catching the thing first, to acquire it,-- said Sam

--You could use your greyhound morph you just mentioned,-- I replied. --Ever been hare coursing?--

--What?-- asked Maggie. --Isn't that like hunting?--

--Kind of,-- I replied. --It's where greyhounds are trained to chase and catch hares. It's really exciting, and- --

But I was cut off.

Maggie was staring at me, her wolf baring its teeth.

--Hunting?-- she shrieked. --You go…_hunting_!--

--Yeah, but, look, it's not like- -- I protested.

--That's one of the cruellest things anyone can ever take part it!-- she shrieked. --You! My god! Out of all people! You kill innocent creatures in the name of entertainment! I thought you were worth more that that, Ferdie.--

I swallowed. I'd kind of been bought up with hunting, coursing and other similar sports. When I was about three, my father had taken me to watch my uncle and a big group of his chums from the local hunt go out on horseback. It was a spectacular sight, all the horses and the dogs and the men in their pink coats galloping over the moors, and I'd been hooked ever since, and had been really annoyed when the government had imposed the ban. I'd never once thought about it as anything but an exciting and traditional way to get rid of pests.

--Maggie, that's enough,-- said Sam. --I don't agree with hunting either, but now's not the time for a moral debate. And it's the best idea we've had so far.--

Maggie growled softly at me.

--So,-- continued Sam. --I'm going to morph my greyhound and grab the hare. I'll try not to kill it. I'll bring it back here and we'll acquire it. Then we'll let the hare go, and cross the meadow. Happy?--

--Aye…-- sulked Maggie.

--Yup,-- I said happily, but a twinge of guilt could be heard in my voice.


	16. Chapter 15: The Hare and the Hound

Chapter 15

The four of us demorphed so that we would be able to acquire the hare. Samantha morphed quickly to greyhound. Apparently this had been her first solo morph - the first once she'd done since we'd been rescued by Eramas. And this was the first time she'd put it to proper use. Maggie refused to watch. I could see I'd upset her, but I'm not the sort of person who's very good at apologising, so I just kind of avoided eye-contact with her and kept out of her way. To be honest with you, I think she deserved to apologise to me just as much as I should apologise to her. In my opinion, she'd shown prejudice about my sport, without knowing much about it. But I didn't say anything about this to her. Each to their own, as my mother would say!

Sam was soon greyhound. The hare was still munching away on the grass. It would have been practically invisible to a human, but we'd been able to see where it was as deer and wolf, and had remembered the location. Sam put her nose in the air, searching for the scent.

--Ok, I can smell the hare. God, this sense of smell's brilliant. Luckily the wind is blowing towards us, so I can smell the hare but it can't smell us as well. Right, I've never done this before, so wish me luck!--

"Good luck," I replied. "Shall I place a bet?"

And she was off!

What a show it turned out to be! Sam had crept within a few meters of the hare, but it had soon noticed her presence and was off like a shot! Soon the two of them were locked in a fearsome cat-and-mouse chase, weaving and zigzagging across the whole of the field.

--Ohhhh my gaaawd!-- yelled Sam, partly from the rush, partly from the thrill.

Left! Right! Left! Left! Right! Straight! Pause! Go!

The hare was trying to outwit Sam by turning sharp corners, but what it didn't know was that this was no ordinary greyhound chasing it. This was a greyhound with the mind of a human girl. Sam soon spotted what it was doing. There was no way it would escape.

Another sprint! It was breathtaking to watch! Sam's greyhound certainly knew a thing about speed. Thirty-Forty-Fifty miles an hour at some points! Her supple back bending and folding in on itself, then flattening out like a whip. Long legs propelling her across the ground like a cheetah, several meters a stride! I began to get jealous of Sam. With some many Controllers chasing us, there was nothing I felt like more, now, than a good chase with me doing the catching.

The hare was slowing down now - completely exhausted from its non-stop running. With one final burst of speed, Sam leapt up and grabbed the hare between her teeth.

--Got it!-- yelled Sam in triumph.

"Don't kill it!" squealed Maggie.

Sam bought the hare back to the three of us. Philip started to acquire it immediately to put it in a trance, then me and Maggie, whilst Sam demorphed at top speed to acquire it before it woke up from the trance. Soon, the four of us had the hare's DNA floating about in our bloodstream. The hare sprinted off, out of sight. Sam crouched on the floor, panting.

"Ok, guys," she gasped. "I'm just gonna take a breather, and then we'll all morph hare and sprint to the other side."

"Hope a real greyhound comes along," muttered Maggie, to me only. "Then you'll know firsthand exactly what it's like to torture an animal in the name of sport."

--Yaaahhh haaahh!-- I yelled.

I've felt speed as a horse. I've felt speed diving through the air as a falcon. That was pretty exciting, I can tell you. And I've felt speed whilst cruising along at fifty miles an hour five thousand feet up in the air as a goose. But I've never felt speed like I've felt it now.

--I'm the Energiser Bunny!-- I yelled.

It was like nothing I'd felt before. So close to the ground, my nose was practically scraping the floor, but shooting along through the undergrowth - it was like the ground was moving beneath me! I felt like I'd drunk a million cups of coffee! A lightening bolt had just hit me! I'd stuck me tongue in a power supply! I felt like I was strapped underneath a Ferrari, skimming across Silverstone at a thousand miles an hour. And my hares' crazy instincts just twisted the power button to maximum!

--Whoa!-- cried Maggie. --This is amazing!--

--Whoohoo!-- screamed Sam.

I almost didn't notice when we reached the other side of the meadow. It was over a few hundred meters from one side to the other, but we'd made it in less than 30 seconds!

--My god, that was incredible!-- gushed Maggie as we began to demorph. She had clearly forgotten her disapproval of the whole event.

--What a rush!-- I agreed, watching the brown hair on my body melt together to form my own pink skin. My huge long ears shrunk to become little round human ears. My hearing immediately dulled, as if someone had put the world on mute. My big black eyes slid round from the side of my head back to the front, decreasing my all-round view, but improving my depth perception. My strong back legs reformed into my weak human legs. Paws grew fingers. Toes popped out at the end of my back legs, only to be covered by my morphing boots. I grew upwards, my spine stretching out in actual terms, but shrinking in comparison to how it had been when I was a hare. I suddenly felt as if someone had shoved a ruler down my back to make me unable to move my back freely. At last, my little hare mouth and twitchy nose reformed into human features and my thought-speaking ability switched off.

I grinned at Philip, who had, as usual, reached human before the rest of us. "Enjoy that?" I asked.

"Yeah, but not as good as flying," he replied.

I laughed, and dizzy from the adrenaline rush, started my morph back to stag.


	17. Chapter 16: A Well Earned Rest

Chapter 16

At long last, we began to see signs that we were coming back into civilisation. Roads were begoming more frequent, and the forest was thinning out. It was early afternoon and yet another sweltering hot day. The four of us had demorphed several times to prevent us from going over the two hour time limit, using the sun and Philip's survival brain as a rough guide to the time.

--Are we there yet? It's sooooo hot!-- I moaned. --It wasn't like this yesterday!--

The four of us had quickened our pace for the last half an hour or so - Philip and Maggie trotting effortlessly as wolves, Sam and I performing the stag's characteristic 'bound' - a movement where all four hooves bounded onto the ground at the same time, like springs. Sam was now slowing down, and we all followed suite.

--Well, we've probably been going for a while now,-- she said. --We can do the last bit of the journey as hawks, I should think. It's been hours since we last sighted a potential Controller. And we'll need the raptor's eyes to help us find our way. Let's demorph, get ourselves a drink, have a rest, and be off in about half an hour.

It was good to rest. The four of us were pretty tired, not only from the travelling, but also from all the morphing and demorphing. The adrenaline bursts had helped, but they could only provide energy for a short time, not hours on end. I had no idea where we were. For all any of us knew, we could be totally lost and in some random farm in Scotland! But, as much as I hated to admit it, I was proud of my brother's navigation skills, and trusted him to know where we were.

"Mmm… that's so much better!" I said, after plunging my entire head into the river. "Very cool and refreshing". I shook my head like a dog to get rid of the water - most of which went over Philip and Sam.

"Sam!" I exclaimed. "You're all wet!"

"Hmm... I wonder why?" she laughed, cupping water into her hands and drinking it.

Maggie was trying to run her fingers through her knotted hair. "I don't suppose anyone thought to bring a hairbrush?"

"Sorry," laughed Sam. "I know what you mean though, my hair's become a nightmare over the past day. Look how frizzy it is!"

I laughed at the two of them, with their girly problems. I ran my hand through my shaggy mane. "You don't need a hairbrush!" I laughed. "Let your hair live wild, and free!"

"Aye aye, and end up looking like you?" Maggie joked.

"Darn right, like me," I laughed.

After a while of lounging around, Sam decided we should get going again. I was all up for lazing about even more.

"Arr, Sam, what's the hurry?" I said, lying against a tree trunk. "It's gonna take weeks to get to America, what difference is another hour going to make?"

"I don't think we should stay in one place for too long, that's all," she replied. "And I want to try and get to Cardiff as soon as possible so we know what our options are. Come on, Ferd, you want to get back in to your hobby morph again, don't you?"

I couldn't argue with this. Sam knew as much as I did how much I loved flying. "Yeah, yeah, you've got me, I must say," I grinned, focusing on my falcon morph and feeling the changes begin. A pattern of feathers was being drawn all over my skin and over the top of my morphing outfit, as if an invisible tattooist was at work. It didn't hurt - morphing never does - but it did tickle a bit. Suddenly, the patterns popped up, out of my skin, becoming 3D. I felt myself shrink - a process that feels just like one is falling, but with their feet still on the ground. My arms stretched out, allowing for the falcon's large wingspan. My teeth melted away, my lips hardening and bulging outwards to form a sharp, hooked beak. My nose simply vanished. My eyes became black and round, and my vision suddenly improved greatly. Suddenly, I could see every tiny detail possible, from ants crawling up a tree twenty meters away, to all the yummy little mice and voles scampering around in the undergrowth.

--That really is a huge morph you have there, Maggie,-- said Philip, looking at Maggie's massive White-Tailed eagle morph. She was about three times the size as I was, with at least an eight foot wingspan. Sam was her lanner falcon, a bird similar to my own falcon morph. Philip was his magnificent (but now, rather puny looking compared to Maggie's eagle) buzzard.

--Ready, then, guys?-- asked Sam when we were all morphed. --Lets get airborne!--


	18. Chapter 17: Journeys and Johnny!

Chapter 17

--So, what might one do when one gets to Cardiff?-- asked Philip in a ridiculous, but completely serious, accent. --What might be one's options?--

Sam forced back a laugh. --Well, _one_ cannot be sure until _one_ enters the city,-- said Sam. --_One_ may sleepeth, _one_ may carry on flying, _one_ may swimeth or _one_ might even sneaketh around the port and see if _one _can hitchhiketh a trip to America.--

I laughed in thought-speak - and squawked out loud to show my approval. Sam doesn't often make jokes, but this one was brilliant, having clearly knocked Philip off his throne.

--I think stowing away on a boat sounds like a good enough idea,-- said Maggie. --I know we've all got water morphs and stuff, but crossing thousands of miles across the Atlantic is a pretty big step. What if one of gets lost, or hurt, and there's nowhere to demorph?--

--We could fly over, as geese,-- said Philip, carefully avoiding any '_ones_'.

--Yeah, but we'd still have the problem of demorphing and remorphing - in the middle of the ocean,-- said Sam.

--Do you have any idea how large the Atlantic is, Philip?-- I asked innocently. --It's rather a lot bigger than our swimming pool. A little deeper too. And with a couple extra species of dangerous animal.--

--Yes, thank you, Flawless. I can't hear you suggesting anything else. I can see you're all up for easy option.--

--Guys, please,-- said Sam. She raised her left wing and turned towards me. --There's an international port in Cardiff. We just have to find out which ships - if any - are set to sail for the US, morph something small, and stow aboard.--

--There's so many things wrong with that plan, Sam, that I don't know where to begin,-- huffed Philip. --But how about this one - how on earth are you going to find out which ship is going where? I would seriously advise against going up to the captain and asking him? And what if they're Controllers?--

--Well, I don't know!-- scorned Sam. --It was just a suggestion! Why don't you- --

But I wasn't going to hear another fight for dominance between the pair of them.

--Ok, -- I said, stepping between them for the first time. --Sam, you may not have all the answers but at least it's a start. Philip, if you have an idea, tell us - amicably.--

Philip was silent for a second, obviously annoyed at being told off by his younger brother.

--I'll find out where the ships are headed,-- he replied. --I know a thing or two about navigation. Nothing like the Navy boys or anything, but I should be ok. It's a civilian port, so it won't be as secure as military ones. Might need you guys to help me though.--

--Fine. You tell us what you need and we'll do it,-- said Sam.

We flapped on, Philip outlining his ideas to sneak into the database of the international port. He was carefully checking each step with Sam, asking for her approval. Although quick to criticise others, Philip won't make any plans without supervision nowadays. As I listened, I realised it wasn't much of a plan - there was a heck of a lot of 'ifs' and 'in cases', but it was the best we had. I didn't bother listening to the intricate details, instead just waiting to hear what I had to do and remembered as much.

The fields were becoming fewer and further between now. We were approaching the city. The four of us, being different species of birds, had spread out quite a lot over several kilometres and at different altitudes in order not to attract attention. I was quite far in front, maybe a mile up. Maggie was behind me, further west, and higher than all of us. Sam and Philip were to the east, furthest away from me and flying slightly lower. Philip was guiding us towards the port, again following roads and signposts. His hawk eyes were perfect for the job. As we flew over the motorway, I caught a nice thermal from the concrete below and soared lazily upwards. A thermal is like a pillar of warm air. If you catch one, you can ride it like a lift up to the bellies of the clouds. You just spread your wings and let it take you. It's an amazing feeling. Maggie and Philip were soaring better than I was. Maggie hardly had to flap her wings at all. The two of them had larger wingspans, their hawk and eagle morphs well adapted for riding the thermals. Mine and Sam's falcon morphs had shorter and slimmer wings - perfect for diving skimming through the air to catch small birds on the wing, but not quite so good for soaring. Still, I was flying, so I couldn't complain.

At long last, and after a de- and remorph in some smelly alleyway just before we got into the centre of the city, we found the port. It had taken a while - there were many cities and ports along the south coast of Wales and from the air, they all seemed to merge into each other. I said, why not just stop anywhere on the coast, but Sam had insisted we stick to the plan. How useful this morphing power had turned out to be! There was no way we could have found the place so quickly or so easily by train. We demorphed, as usual, on the roof of a large, modern building alongside the river. It had turned out to be the Millennium Stadium - an enormous, top of its class sports and events stadium, host to prestigious events such as the 1999 Rugby World Cup and the FA Cup, and one of the stadiums to be used in the 2012 Olympics.

"Oh, wow!" I gasped, when I'd realised where we were. I wonder if there's a game going on?" The stadium was enormous, with a huge retractable roof to allow the match to take place in the open air, but to shelter the thousands of spectators. I tried to run towards the edge of the roof, but Philip called me back.

"Flawless, you idiot! The roof's curved - you'll fall right into the stadium before you managed to see in! Anyway, since when have you been interested in rugby or football? I thought you only liked polo."

"Yeah, I do, but - Philip! We're on the roof of the Millennium Stadium! My god! Johnny Wilkinson could be just meters below us!"

"Oooh, yes, what a thought!" daydreamed Maggie. "Johnny…or David Beckham…directly below us…"

Sam sniggered at our childish comments. "Guys, if there was a game going on right now, don't you think you'd be able to hear it?"

I ignored her. "When this whole thing is over, I am never going to pay to go to another game or concert again! Who needs to shell out hundreds of pounds for a ticket - when we can morph falcons and watch the thing for free, from the air! God, yes! And it would be the best view in the entire stadium, and- "

"Yes, come back down to earth now, Flawless," Sam laughed. "We'll still got a job to do."

I swallowed, my bubble burst. Oh yes. We were going to be morphing wasps. What fun.


	19. Chapter 18: The Birds and The Wasps

_**To Quillian**: Hi! Thanks for all your reviews for far! Yes…I thought about them catching a plane too, but then that would make a very short and boring story. It would also be very much like Book 16 and we can't have that! Besides, I've something exciting planned for the next story and it can't take place on a plane! Hehe._

Chapter 18

Wasps. What a thing to have to have to morph. Tiny, buzzy, ugly little wasps. As far from human as you can get. Not even remotely like any of the morphs I'd done before. I suppose, after morphing a great deal of pretty amazing animals - stags, lynxes and raptors, for instance, we'd have to revert sometime to the ugly and the creepy to get the job done.

"Sheesh, Sam, if you'd have told us we'd be turning into wasps two days ago, I don't think I'd have wanted to come on this road trip," I said.

"I think I should go first," said Philip. Maggie, having never acquired a wasp, was about to do her beetle morph again. It was not an experience she had enjoyed. Sam, who would be our taxi, was getting ready to morph to crow.

"And why is that, Philip?" asked Sam. "I thought you didn't want to be leading anything."

Philip gave her a sour look. "None of us have done this morph before," he said, looking at Sam and I. "We don't know what it will be like to control. And we have no idea what its senses are going to be like."

"What can you tell us about wasps, Maggie? Anything you can tell us will be appreciated."

"Well, it wasn't really wasps my parents were helping to save, more like rhinos and that, laughed Maggie. She bruished her hand through her straggly red hair and straigtened her morphing outfit, thinking. "But I do know a few things," she said. "The first thing you'll notice is the compound eyes. They're nothing like human eyes. When I was a beetle, it was a lot like watching a thousand television screens all at once, from all angles. Each shows a slightly different picture, but together you get a pretty good, if bizarre, image of the world. Bees, I know, see different colours to humans, so I'm not sure if wasps do too. Its hearing will be strange too - more like feeling sounds than hearing them. That was the beetle, anyway. Oh, and then there's the wings. The flying, I can imagine, will be very different to flying as birds. And, um, try not to get angry and sting anyone! Unlike bees, you can sting as many times as you want, but it will probably just attract attention!"

"Cool. Thanks, Mags. I hope you were listening to that, Ferd. You'll be doing this in a minute."

"Gosh, yes, don't remind me," I said grimly.

The plan was a risky one, and - no offence, Philip - but a not particularly well thought out one. It involved sneaking into the main office of the port (James Bond, anyone!) as wasps, setting off the fire alarm (that was my idea - a favourite prank of mine), Philip demorphing and grabbing a computer, _hacking in_ to the port's database of departing or departed ships (good grief!) finding a ship on it's way to America, and getting aboard it. All without getting squashed, swatted or seen by Controllers. We would be our most risky when Philip was demorphed. Visser Five, the Yeerk trying his utmost to find us, and his henchmen, could recognise any of us a mile off. And it would be down to the Yeerk pool for the four of us.

Sam looked at me. "When Philip gives the ok in thought-speak, you and Maggie morph to wasp and beetle."

"Yeah, yeah," I grumbled. I had never wanted to acquire the stupid thing in the first place, but it had been buzzing round Philip's head, and Sam had suggested we all acquire it incase we ever needed an insect morph. "I can tell now that this is going to be sickening to watch."

Philip narrowed his eyes, concentrating on the image of the wasp.

"Get this done quickly, please, Philip," I said. Philip has a bit of a talent for fast morphing, although lacks the ability to make it any prettier.

"Yah!" I yelped. The first thing that changed was Philip's eyes. They just seemed to pop out of his head, growing like huge balloons emerging from his eye sockets. Next to change was his body. It pinched in two - a small thorax forming out of his torso, and a huge, swollen abdomen with a nasty looking stinger from his lower half. His arms and legs were becoming black, hairy, and multi-jointed. His fingers disappeared, to be replaced by tiny black claws. But he was still human in size.

"Hurry up and shrink, Philip," I moaned. "I really don't want to be having to watch all this in such detail."

Philip did begin to shrink. But not fast enough. As he shrank, his head finished reforming into that of the insect. His mouth and nose became covered in the hard exoskeleton of the wasp, then stretched outwards to form a tear shaped head, complete with gnashing mandibles. Long antennae popped out of his forehead. And, even worse, another pair of legs popped out from his chest. Black, sharp, hairy. I resisted the urge to throw up.

Philip had so far been reacting to the changes with his typical still upper lip, but even he was breaking down after watching that.

--Urgh!-- he cried in thought-speak, quite out of character. --You're turn next for this, Flawless!-- He fell onto all fours - or, all sixes - and experimentally twitched his new limbs. He was almost fully wasp now, a shifting monstrosity about the size of a mouse. At long last, four fine gossamer wings popped out of his back. He opened them, and propelled himself into the air.

"Philip?" said Sam. "I hope you're not losing control of the morph there?"

Philip buzzed around her head, seemingly randomly.

"Oh, typical!" she said. "I knew this would happen! Ferdie, see if you can try and catch- "

Luckily, whatever Sam was about to suggest, I wouldn't have to do, as at last Philip replied.

--Well,-- he said stiffly. --This is all rather exciting. Excellent wings on this creature. Ugly, but definitely able to fly. Ferdie, I think you'll enjoy this,-- he said, buzzing round my head. --The wasp's mind isn't as bad as I thought. It sort of wants to go and rejoin its colony, but, now sensing any more wasps, it's lost interest."

"Cool," said Sam. She looked at me and grinned. "Ready, Flawless?"

"Ready as I'll ever be!" I laughed, trying to keep the nerves from showing in my voice.


	20. Chapter 19: Valuable or Fanciable?

Chapter 19

--Ok, I admit it. Turning into a wasp may be disgusting, but flying as one is brilliant!--

I had completed the changes to wasp at last, with a lot of yelling on my behalf, and a lot of encouragement from Sam. And a lot of impatience on behalf of Philip.

--Yes, alright, Flawless. Stop messing around, we don't have all day,-- he retorted.

--You ok there, you three?-- I heard Sam say --How you coping as beetle again, Mags?--

--Yeah, fine, a lot better than it was the first time at least!--

--Cool,-- I replied. --This thing flies even better than my falcon.--

--Yes, but not very fast,-- said Sam. --Come on, climb aboard, or you've never get to the place.--

The plan was that the three of us insects hitch a ride on Sam's crow body to the port's Central Office. Sam, being crow, would be fairly inconspicuous - a lot more than she would be as a goose or falcon. She did briefly think about looking for a seagull morph to acquire, but decided against it as it would waste too much time. We would then slip in through an open window. Philip would then find somewhere to demorph, set off the fire alarm, and use the office's computers to find a ship on its way to the US. Morph back to wasp. Buzz out the window, and back onto Sam's neck to get out of the place. I know. Ridiculous plan. Don't even try to count all the things that could go wrong. Since the port was a long way from our hiding spot on the Millennium Stadium, it would be almost impossible for us wasps to get to the office - and we had to find it first!

The three of us climbed aboard Sam's crow neck. It was a strange experience. Like Maggie had described, the vision of the wasp was very odd. Like watching hundreds of tiny TV screens. The sense of smell was very strong, but, since there were no other wasp or any flowers about, my wasp brain was quickly bored. Hearing was another problem. I could feel the vibrations of different sounds resonating through my body, but it was difficult to make out any particular words. Luckily, we had no problem understanding each other's thought-speak, and Sam would be around to do much of our hearing and seeing for us. She had decided to stay outside, partly because Philip and I were needed to hack into the database, partly because Maggie didn't have a crow morph, and partly because I had thought she was too valuable to lose in such a potentially suicidal mission. Also my way of saying 'fanciable'.

--Here we go! Hold on!-- said Sam.

A sudden movement, a whoosh of air, and we were off! I couldn't see more than a few feet in front of me, so I hoped Sam knew where she was going.

--Ok,-- she said, after maybe twenty minute's flying. --I'm pretty sure I've spotted the office. The port's a huge place, with loads of buildings around, but I think this is the only one with offices. All the rest are warehouses and cargo storage and all that.-- She paused, and I felt her crow body descend through the air, downwards.

--I'm gonna land on the window ledge, a few floors up, in a sec,-- she said. --My vision is pretty good, and I can see an open window. Inside, there is a medium sized office with a few computer terminals. There's two people inside, drinking coffee. There's a door to a hallway, and a toilet just outside the door. I'll leave you three to find that toilet, so Philip can demorph. I also think I can see the fire alarm by that door. You'll have to hit that to get the workers out of there. Philip, you do what you need to do as quickly as possible. Maggie and Ferdie, stay as insects if you can and keep a look out. Warn Philip if anyone comes near.--

She flapped down to the window sill and lowered her neck to let the three of us crawl off.

--I'll be just here, if you need me,-- she said. --Good luck!--


	21. Chapter 20: Hackers

Chapter 20

--I can't see a thing.--

--I'm about to plunge to my death.--

-Shut up, you two!--

The three of us were hanging, upside down, to the ceiling of the port's central office. According to Sam, it wasn't the primary control office, but a kind of little brother, so security would be less tight here, and there would be fewer people around. We were now trying to follow Philip, who was attempting to navigate us towards the door, so that he could find somewhere to demorph.

--Right, this is taking forever with the three of us,-- he said. --Maggie, you stay here, get ready to keep a look out over this office. Ferdie, you're with me. Keep an eye on the hallway.--

--I thought you weren't allowed to give orders,-- I muttered.

--Yeah, well, I think the situation's changed in the last few days,-- he said grimly. --Since getting _abducted_.--

--Yeah, well, just so you know, there's no way this is going to work,-- I said, dropping any trace of optimism I thought I had.

--It is going to work,-- he said. --You see if it doesn't.-- Ah. Just like the old Philip. He powered up his wings. --Come on, Ferdie - it's going to take us hours to crawl over to the door.--

We buzzed over to the door. Now that I was beginning to learn to use the wasp's brain, I was finding the bugs' eyesight much more easy to use. It was great at seeing movement. Movement that would have been too quick for a human to see - like a person's hand trying to swipe me - was like a slow motion movie to my wasp's eyes.

"Damn wasps," muttered a woman below me. "Thought they'd disappeared by now."

I kept out of the way of her enormous hand easily, buzzing along behind Philip. I could just make the huge door frame - a rectangular hole the size of a valley. Philip zipped through, and entered the toilet.

--Keep a look out, Ferd,-- I heard him say. --The last thing I want is anyone coming in when I'm in mid morph.--

I stayed back and waited for him to demorph, clinging effortlessly to the wall. I tried to keep a lookout down the corridor, but, to be honest, the wasp's eyes were so bad at long range vision, I had no idea what I was looking at.

--Everything all right out there, Ferdie?-- I heard Philip say.

--Err, yeah, absolutely,-- I replied.

--Good. I'm about to cross the line back to normal speak so I'll still be able to hear you but won't be able to respond in thought-speak. Keep me updated if anyone comes along, ok?--

--Yeah, sure,-- I said.

After a couple of minutes, the cubical door opened, and a large shape which I assumed was Philip, crept out. Luckily - and rather bizarrely - the place was very quiet. Hardly anyone milling about. Philip walked swiftly down the corridor, looking completely out of place in his morphing outfit, but his thick socks muffling the sound of his footsteps. Then, having located the fire alarm, he punched the little glass window of the alarm, and pushed the button. Immediately, my wasp body tensed. A loud, droning sound echoed around me.

--Philip!-- I shouted. --Get out of sight!--

Philip ran back into the toilet cubicle, whilst the two office workers walked non concerned out of the room.

"If it's another damn terrorist bomb threat, I'm handing in my resignation tomorrow," muttered one of them. "I can't work under that kind of risk…"

"Well, they have to take them seriously, nowadays, Jim. What with the seventh of July and all…" I heard the woman say as they disappeared down the stairs.

--This is going way too smoothly,-- said Maggie from inside the office room. I buzzed inside and landed upside down on the ceiling. From somewhere below, I could smell a jam sandwich. As I'm sure any regular picnicker will know, wasps adore jam sandwiches and anything sweet. It took all of my mental will power to stop myself from flying down and lapping it up.

"Idiots," I heard Philip mutter somewhere below me.

--What?-- I asked.

"They haven't even bothered to lock their computers. Screensavers aren't on yet, either. I can just sit down and go straight in. Sheesh, the security in this place. To think this is an international port.--

I heard Philip tapping away below me. I had no idea what he was up to, or if he was getting anywhere.

--Everything all right in there?-- I heard Sam ask, her thought-speak faint from the distance and almost indistinguishable above the droning of the fire alarm.

"Dammit!" exclaimed Philip. "You made me lose my concentration!"

--Sorry!-- said Sam. Crows must have good hearing.

-Dammit it, Sam! You did it again! Everyone - shut up! I'm trying to override this password."

--Temper, temper,-- I said privately to Sam and Maggie. Sam giggled nervously.

After a few minutes, Philip seemed to be making some progress.

--You getting anywhere?-- asked Sam? --Only, a load of people came out the building a while ago, but they're beginning to make their way back in now.--

"Yeah…just about there," said Philip. I heard a few more seconds tapping, then,

"Ok, guys, I've found one. The HMS Hertford, a British naval aircraft carrier, is currently headed on a trajectory towards New York City. Set off at oh-nine-hundred hours this morning. That's AM, Ferdie. 9 o clock this morning."

--I _know_ what nine hundred hours means,-- I huffed.

He ran us through a list of bearings and a load of other technical mumbo-jumbo, most of wish I didn't understand.

"Which," he continued, "probably puts it about a hundred miles off the south coast of Ireland."

--When's it due to arrive in New York?-- asked Sam

"Estimated time of arrival: sixty hours from now. Scheduled to carry out some task two-thousand miles out to sea."

--What kind of task?-- asked Sam

"Classified," replied Philip. "Thought it might be." He paused, and I heard a little more tapping. "Anyway. Captain's a guy named Commander Lort-Strelitz. Looks a bit like James Bond."

--Brosnan or Connery?-- I asked.

"Roger Moore, now that you mention it," he said.

--Controller?--

"How should I -"

But yet again, one of my friends had been cut off, due to a cruel twist of fate.

Two large shapes could be seen entering the door, coming to a stop in front of Philip.

--Well! Ten minutes in, and already the plan's going to the dogs!-- I chirped. --Took a little longer than I expected, but, hey.--


	22. Chapter 21: Movie Heroes

Chapter 21

--Don't. Do. Anything,-- instructed Sam --They might be Controllers. Just pretend you're here to fix the computers or something,--

--Are you joking?-- I asked. --This is an international port - there's probably Controllers all over the place! God knows why I agreed to take part in this.--

I was still on the ceiling, just two feet from the top of the first person's head. I couldn't make out their facial expressions, online the outlines of their bodies. If they were Controllers, they'd recognise Philip immediately. Along with Sam, Maggie and I, and Visser Three's hated resistance, we were at the top of the Yeerks' Most Wanted list.

"What's going on here, son?" asked the first person, a man with an American accent. It was becoming easier to distinguish different sounds, now. "Who are you?"

"Err.." Philip hesitated. Then, more confidently, "My name's David Lawrence. I've been sent by technical resources to talk to someone about firewalls? I'm a, err, student."

--Good thinking,-- said Sam. --Just try and keep calm.--

"I, um, heard the fire alarm, but I didn't know where to go. I came back up when it finished bleeping to find someone…" He blinked, and smiled goofily at the two figures. "I guess you're the people I should talk to!"

"Right, well," frowned the second person, a woman with a strange trans-Atlantic drawl. "I haven't heard anything about any students coming up. There's no way you should be in this office without supervision. I'm gonna have to confirm this with the director."

--She's pulling out a pager,-- Sam told Maggie and I. --I don't have a good feeling about this. Ferdie and Maggie, can you two find somewhere you'd be able to demorph? But don't do it until I give the signal.--

--Wouldn't we be safer as flies?-- asked Maggie.

--Yes…but…--

--She wants us to be available as fire power,-- I explained privately to Maggie. I powered my wings and led Maggie into the toilet cubical, where we began to demorph. Maggie immediately started to morph to wolf.

There was a tense silence, broken by the American guy.

"I don't suppose you've got any ID?" he asked sarcastically, with a strange hint of triumph in his voice.

"Yeah…I have," said Philip, "but I left them at reception when the alarm went off."

"Right," said the woman, clearly not believing him. Then, like a cashier who had just caught a shop lifter, she said,

"Son, you understand that if you cannot prove your reason for being here, you are committing a serious crime and I'm going to have to call the police. Now, I've got now idea how you managed to get past security, but-"

She was cut off by a man who had appeared behind her.

"Ah, Assistant Director Chalmers," she said, nodding at the newcomer. "Yes, I was wondering if you could please confirm this young man's identity and clearance level?"

The man looked straight head, his eyes boring into Philip's. I heard him utter a single word.

"Fugitive," he said.

The man placed both his hands in his pockets. With his left hand, he pulled out a mobile phone, which he flipped open and pressed a button to speed-dial. He clenched his right hand around a Dracon beam.

--Maggie, Ferdie - get ready to fight!-- Samantha didn't need to say anything. I was already changing before I even had a chance to think about it.

"Hutchinson, Palliser, you two out of here," snapped the Assistant Director - or, should I say, the Yeerk who had taken over his body. "Call Reynolds of security. Tell him to get on the phone to DI Steven Bayliss of Scotland Yard. He'll know who I mean." He allowed a small smile to spread over his face. "This boy is a known…terrorist. He must be neutralised."

"Yes…sir," said the woman. The two of them left the room, looking anxious. It was just Philip and the controller, now.

--Philip - get the heck out of there!-- screamed Samantha. --Mags, Ferd - get ready to go battle morphs, on my command!--

--Is it Visser Five?-- asked Maggie, her voice shaking. She was almost fully wolf, thick black hair sprouting all over her body. --I don't know what he looks like!--

--Not Visser Five,-- confirmed Sam. --But I don't relax just yet, I'm sure he'll be popping in!--

The Controller - Chalmers - was speaking into his mobile phone.

"Yes, this is Annard three-nine-four. Yes, Visser. Yes."

He flipped his phone shut, and placed it back in his pocket. He took out his Dracon beam. Philip was already morphing.

"Oh, yes," drawled the Controller, taking his weapon out of his pocket and focussing it on Philip, who was already on all fours. "I'd almost forgotten about those little powers of yours. No…I don't think I'll kill you. You'll make fine hosts. Perhaps,

even mine. And I'm sure it would be a good idea to flush out your little friends."

Philip leapt, before he was even fully morphed. He had gone wolverine, rather than ox, and was now a dog-like creature the size of a small bear, with menacing curved claws, thick brown fur, and long, sharp teeth.

The Controller fired his Dracon beam, but Philip's wolverine body was far quicker and more agile than the director's human body. He leapt up and clenched his still-forming teeth around the Controller's right wrist, twisting his arm so that he was unable to fire the Dracon beam.

"Arrgh!" yelled the Controller.


	23. Chapter 22: Hunter

Chapter 22

--Guys - this is a get-out-and-go job,-- I could just make out Sam yelling. --There's going to be some bloodshed, but there's nothing we can do about that. Like before - try to disable rather than eliminate - some might be innocent employees. Just try and disarm as many Controllers as you can. Philip - when you're clear, let me know. Then get everyone to morph to raptors, ASAP.--

Philip hesitated, unsure whether he could take command. His past and present were fighting an internal raging battle.

Maggie picked up on this, even though she knew nothing of Philip's past. --You can do this, Philip,-- she said. --We need you!--

--Sam, Ferdie, I could use some help in here!-- Philip yelled, as two armed Controllers ran past me into the office.

--Ferdie - get in the office and give Philip a hand!-- Sam barked. --Maggie - get out on the landing and stop more Controllers coming up the stairs. I'm going to morph and try and prevent backup from entering the building.--

Maggie burst out of the door, into the corridor. I could hear footsteps coming up the stairs, and Maggie growling. I completed the changes to lynx, feeling its' mind surface below my own. It didn't like being cooped up in a dark space. It wanted out. That was fine with me. I wanted out, too.

--Philip - hang on!-- I shouted, feeling the incredible rush of adrenaline I usually craved building up inside me. I bounded out through the door, into the office, relishing the liquid grace and incomparable power of my cat morph as I entered my second battle in as many days.

--Yahhh!-- I cried. I soared through the air, hitting my paws against the director's back. He managed to dodge out of the way, but losing his balance as he did so. Philip lunged at the chance. He grabbed the director's ankles between his teeth, hindering his ability to stand. He fell forward onto all fours, dropping the Dracon beam.

--Ferdie - get rid of that thing!-- Philip shouted. He swiped his paw at the man's face, blinding him.

--Already on it!-- I shouted, pouncing towards it. I grabbed the Dracon between my teeth, narrowly dodging a beam of Dracon fire, leaping behind a chair for shelter. What a move! Talk about Mission Impossible!

"Don't kill them, you fools!" yelled the director. They have to be able to demorph so we can infest them! Reynolds! Get this damn animal off me!"

The second Controller - Reynolds - aimed his Dracon at me.

--Argghh!-- I yelled. I smelt burnt fur. I felt an incredible agony from my side. Reynolds had fired and hit - but not killed me. Low power. I assumed it was set at 'stun' for humans - but it would take more than an electric shock to take me down. This enraged both my own, human mind, and the lynx inside me.

I growled as much as the rather pitiful lynx growl would allow me, throwing myself at the third Controller, who'd so far missed each and every one of his shots. He hit the ground, his Dracon beam sliding under a desk.

--Guys - Sam here!-- I heard a voice yell. --I'm falcon, but it's proving impossible to prevent anyone else from entering! There are more Controllers than I thought and this bird's not the greatest of warriors! How are you doing up there?--

--Where did you morph!-- I yelled back, snarling at the second Controller. The last time I had spoken to Sam, she was crow.

--Somewhere very dangerous, very open, and very frightening!-- replied Sam.

Philip was still locked in deadly combat with the director. I had knocked one Controller unconscious, and disarmed the other. Maggie was still in the corridor, ripping, tearing, dodging. I saw that she was limping. She had a nasty gash across her face, and half an ear was missing.

Suddenly, I had an idea. But I would need everyone together.

--Maggie!-- I called. --Get in the office if you can! Get under a desk and start demorphing!--

--What? Why?--

--Please - I don't have time to explain!--

She gave a Controller a final bite on the leg, sending him and several others tumbling down the stairs. She turned and loped into the office.

I was still holding the director's Dracon beam. Could be useful. I focused on the image of myself, but concentrated only on morphing my hands. I felt the changes begin immediately. I ducked down behind the desk - for the next few minutes, I would be vulnerable without all my claws. I watched as the creamy coloured, spotted fur disappeared from my front paws. The claws retracted, and dissolved. Fingers and thumbs emerged, lengthening, becoming jointed. The pads on my palms grew soft and fleshy. I opened my still lynx mouth and grabbed the Dracon in my newly formed hands. I stood up on my hind legs, peering over the desk at the director. And then, like the trained hunter I was, I took aim, and pulled the trigger. The director tumbled backwards, unconscious. I shifted position and took aim at the other still-conscious Controller. It must have looked hilarious - a mutant cat with hands, pointing a futuristic gun at a mind controlling alien Yeerk. If the Controller found it funny, however, he had no time to laugh. He was soon unconscious on the floor.

--You really should be the one doing the shooting!-- I yelled to Philip. --You were always better than me! Anyway - demorph and get to hawk!--

Maggie was almost human. I completed the last of the changes, keeping the Dracon aimed at the door. I didn't hesitate to shoot any other Controllers still daring to confront me.

--Sam! We're morphing raptors now!-- yelled Philip. --You don't need to bother holding anyone else off.--

--Good - I was almost killed about a million times just then! I'm going sky-high! You guys join me when you can! Is everyone ok?--

I watched as Sam's falcon form past the office window. I saw that one of her wings was badly damaged, and that she was flying at an angle. She could demorph and remorph, and be healed - but that was a luxury that would have to wait.

"Yeah - we're fine!" I shouted, fully human. I knew she would be able to hear me, even though I had crossed the line into normal speech. Falcons have great hearing.

--Ferdie - come on!-- shouted Philip. He was the fasted morpher out of the four of us. He had already demorphed, and was now immediately morphing to buzzard. Maggie was emerging from her wolf morph, her tail dissolving, teeth becoming useless, her senses becoming weaker. I could feel my own body becoming smaller as I shot towards the ground, becoming hobby. I concentrated on keeping my right hand until the very last minute - the one holding the Dracon - which I kept trained on the doorway until the last second.

--Philip, Maggie - you two get going! I'm going to drop the gun and I don't want you two still around as extra target lessons!--

They flapped up towards the window - Maggie rather laboriously since her huge eagle body was working against dead air - and sailed out of the window. I dropped the Dracon beam, hopped up to the window sill and was out before my hand was even fully falcon.


	24. Chapter 23: Relentless

Chapter 23

Even to my supreme falcon vision, the port was growing smaller and small as we headed up into the atmosphere. I had caught a decent thermal in the late afternoon air and was now drifting lazily upwards, too tired to bother flapping my wings more than I had to.

It was quiet up here, although I could make out the noises of the port below me. None of us were saying too much. Philip was probably torturing himself, his plan having failed and putting the team in danger. Sam, guilty for hanging back as crow whilst the rest of us fought for our lives. Maggie had said nothing since demorphing from wolf. And I had finally realised that this journey - or war - was no longer a game.

In front of me, I could make out Sam circling back round towards the rest of us. She had been first to the skies, and now felt obliged, as leader, to put her teams' wellbeing before her own. Philip was further in front. Typical Philip. Fight, then run, and leave the others behind you. Maggie, although having taken off before me, had fallen behind and was now struggling to catch up. It had taken her a huge amount of effort to get her eagle body into the skies, and was now having trouble getting enough lift to gain some good distance.

--Tilt your wings to the right a bit,-- advised Sam, who had seen Maggie's problem. --There's still a bit of warm air coming off the tarmac, and if you glide towards them, you should get a bit of lift.--

Maggie flapped on, relentless.

--Come on, Mags, you can do this,-- Sam said gently. --We're going to stop and demorph in a minute. You can rest then.--

Maggie shifted her flying position, and appeared to catch a little breeze from the ocean wind. She stretched out her huge wings fully, soaring upwards.

--Great stuff, Maggie,-- praised Sam. --Ok, guys, we're going to head for that run down building about a mile east. We'll demorph there. Then, you guys can morph to wasp and beetle, and I'll go goose.--

--Why?-- I asked.

--You guys need a rest,-- she said. --You can ride on my back as we find this stupid ship.--

I smiled at Sam. We had landed and were taking a breather before morphing again.

"That's a pretty nice thing you're doing for us, Sam," I smiled sheepishly. "Don't feel you have to put yourself out for the rest of us though. We can handle ourselves too, you know."

Sam smirked and raised an eyebrow wearily. I could see that she was worn out as anyone.

"Don't try to be such a gentleman all the time, Flawless," she laughed, slipping her hand into mine. "It's not going to get you anywhere."


	25. Author's Notes

Author's Notes

Thanks everyone for all the reviews! I've really enjoyed writing this so far, although the last few chapters I found really difficult and had a huge case of writer's block!

Disclaimer: (yeah, yeah, yeah…) Most of what you read here is owned by K.A. Applegate – the Andalites, and Yeerks, the terminology. And of course Jake and co. But Sam, Philip, Ferdie, Asha and Maggie and any others you don't meet in the books are all mine. My creation, my guys, and I can do whatever I like with them. Hehe.

PS. I'm planning to do a Fan Art as the 'front cover' to this story, although I still haven't got round to doing the first one yet. When I do it should appear on Elfwood (see http/elfwood.lysator.liu.se/fanq/j/e/jennalo3/jennalo3.html) sometime (although god knows when I'll get round to it!). Will probably be Ferdie turning into the stag as I think that morph really suits him. Not sure yet. Any suggestions?

**Thanks to:**

_Quillian_: Hi! Thanks for all your reviews for far! Yes…I thought about them catching a plane too, but then that would make a very short and boring story. It would also be very much like Book 16 and we can't have that! Besides, I've something exciting planned for the next story and it can't take place on a plane! Hehe.

_LittleMidgett_ – Thanks for your many reviews! I'm grateful! Probably wouldn't have bothered updated as much as I do otherwise!

_Gryphinwyrm7_ - Yeah, I think I worked it out at about ten-thousand miles in all. That's a long way. You didn't think it would be a quick two-day train journey, did you? This has got to fill four stories! Lol! Luckily, I've got something in mind. Got another story before that one first though!

_Nea_ - Yeah, Philip's got a secret! You'll find out more in the third story. He'll be narrating, by the way.

In the Third Story: 

_**The Assassin**: When Sam is held prisoner on board a Yeerk infested ship, Philip must confront his past and take command of the group. But it soon becomes clear that there's someone else in the equation - and are they friend or foe?_


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